


Join Me

by tinfoiljones



Category: Motorcity (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Bisexual Male Character, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Gay Male Character, KaneCo!Mike, Leader!Chuck, M/M, Mutual Pining, Series Rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 50,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23242003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinfoiljones/pseuds/tinfoiljones
Summary: AU, Chuck and Mike never met in Deluxe; Chuck is leader of the Burners and Mike is still Kane's Commander. Despite being enemies, Chuck and Mike find themselves having feelings for each other, but are both too stubborn to leave their sides of Detroit.
Relationships: Claire/Foxy (Motorcity), Dutch/Tennie (Motorcity), Mike Chilton/Chuck
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	1. First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Don't read if you don't like or are triggered by violence or dystopian societies  
> Authors Note: For the sake of the AU to work Chuck is OOC and some events have been slightly changed.

According to the records of Detroit Deluxe, he officially never existed; and yet he was still public enemy number one. They had him branded as an outlaw and a traitor. Of course he preferred the term 'rogue genius', but hey it's not like he was the one making holographed wanted posters in Deluxe.

Plain and simply, his name was Chuck, leader of the Motorcity gang the Burners; he was of Caucasian descent made obvious by his pale, freckled skin, blonde hair, and maya-blue eyes.

But introductions aside, today he on a mission.

Currently he was at the opening 'border' between Motorcity and Deluxe; the charging ports were wide open and the area was being patrolled by Kane soldiers,mostly grunts. The keyword, however, was mostly.

"Okay Michael Chilton, time to die." Chuck said to himself as he stood quite some distance away, addressing the Commander of Kane's army who was currently organizing a troop of helmetless grunts. Due to his hacking of his files, Chuck knew pretty much everything about Commander Chilton, from his birthdate to school transcripts and even online shopping habits (Chilton had a strange fascination with cowboy boots). This, however, was the first time Chuck had seen the man, even if from a distance, in person, and he had his slingshot aiming right at him.

Of course Chuck wasn't actually planning to execute the military head, but he needed to incapacitate him - he knew that today they were planning on a raid to take down Motorcity's electrical shield, which was the city's main component of the defense grid, so Chilton had to go down for the time being.

On top of a mostly rundown building, Chuck was lying on his stomach with his sleeve up and trying to get the cursor of his wrist-mounted energy slingshot to line up with Chilton's head, once it was lined he waited for the right moment. 'Little to the left, no back to the right - perfect' the blonde rebel thought to himself right as Commander Chilton turned his back, he pulled back the energy sling of his weapon and released it to fire. He calculated the closing distance in his head '200 yards, 100 yards, 50 yerds, 15 yards, 5 yards-'

CHIC!

Right as the energy ball was within three yards of him Chilton made a sudden 180 and whacked the oncoming projectile with a metal staff that retracted out of a skull-shaped module. "Well damn" Chuck muttered a rare swear word as Chilton looked to the direction of the projectile and spotted the Burners leader.

Dark eyes locked with blue ones, but rather than let his missed shot show on his face, Chuck simply smirked and used his hand to make an 'L'-finger symbol on his forehead directed right at Chilton and made a run for it.

Scaling down the rusted fire-escapes of the building, Chuck calculated that given the average speed of Kane technology he had about two minutes before the Kane Soldiers and Chilton would catch up to him.

But that was plenty of time for him '1 minute 45 seconds, 1 minute 44 seconds, 1 minute 43 seconds, 1 minute 42 seconds, one minute 41 seconds, 1 minute forty seconds' by the time he counted down to one minute and 28 seconds he had made it to the bottom the building and into his car, Blonde Thunder.

He started the car and revved up the engines, and right as the lights came on and the vehicle came alive the head icon of Julie showed up, and he accepted the call, along with calling Dutch, Texas and Jacob.

"What's going on? Is Chilton out?" Her slightly electronic voice demanded, clearly she had noticed the Kane bots and soldiers heading towards the building and them.

"Chilton noticed and countered my shot." Chuck said as he started driving off to his team's direction, keeping an eye on the screen in front of him that displayed a view from the back of his car. "We need to guard the security grid before they close in and blast it, but they lost the element of preparation they originally planned for, and are currently disorganized." Although he assured this he somewhat doubted it himself, he knew for a fact from tapping and recording phone calls that Chilton had a reputation for back up plans and and improvisation.

Texas chimed in, his head icon appearing as he accepted Chuck's call "Texas says we should take those Kane-goons head on."

"No,' He said simply as Dutch's head icon appeared also "Texas and Dutch you two guard the grid whilst me and Julie take the bots on" He directed - Texas and Dutch had the most defense and durability while he and Julie had the most weaponry and flexibility comparatively.

"Are you sure Chuck?" Dutch asked, and the mechanical beeps of R.O.T.H were in the background of his audio feed.

"Im sure, besides I have a sneaking suspicious it's my head that Chilton's after." He said as Nine Lives drove up beside him and hound like Kane-bots gained on them.

"Because you fired a shot at him?" Julie inquired.

"Well that and I made the 'L for Losers' gesture at him." Chuck stated as-a-matter-of-factly.

His honest response earned him an exasperated sigh out of his female teammate "Seriously dude?"

"I wasn't intending for a missed shot to bring me down."

"You just wanted to piss him off didn't you."

"Since when did I care about Chilton's feelings?"

His car suddenly rattled at one of the hound-like Kane bots briefly collided with him, noticeably Blonde Thunder was more affected by a blow than Nine Lives was. Chuck's vehicle was small and lightweight, and wasn't as fast or durable compared to his teammates, but that was merely because he prioritized diverse weaponry and precision, a design plan he modelled after the Amazons.

Seeing that he was boxed in on both sides and the back by Kane-bots he pressed a button to activate an oil-slick trap, which made a special formula of industrial strength, anti-friction gel slick out from all sides except the front so he could keep driving, but the three Kane-bots would be be unable to follow.

"Let's play a game of 'Find Julie'." He heard from Julie's audio feed and knew it was a precursor to her creating holograms of Nine Lives to confuse the bots - since the holograms were hard-light the bots wouldn't be able to sense that they were intangible. Chuck, however, could.

"Julie, break away as much distance between here as you can in a frame of 30 seconds." Chuck commanded as he stopped Blonde Thunder in its place and flipped a few levers that made several small bombs disperse and appear on his radar. They all dispersed in a distance to where when they detonated it wouldn't hit Blonde Thunder, but each could detonate and cause a five-yard radius explosion, but so that the bots wouldn't close in on him he started up Blonde Thunders shield - which used up enough energy that he could only keep it up for a small amount of time before it drained the batteries, in this case he only needed thirty seconds.

He sighed in relief when Julie sped off with her holograms and the bots were too distracted by his stilled vehicle to follow her, and repeatedly tried breaking through Blonde Thunder's shield.

'4 seconds, 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second-'

BOOM

The explosions went off, devastating all the bots that had clamoured around his shield. He smirked and took the shield down, watching as the hound-like bots fizzed visibly through the dust with disorganized electrical currents and fell to the ground.

Chuck started Blonde Thunder back up and followed the blip on his radar that signalled where Julie was.

"Dude, Chuck, we have a problem." Dutch suddenly said frantically as his head icon came up again "The bots took a shot at the defense grids power generator."

"Please tell me they missed." He almost groaned, already know the answer.

The mechanic retorted, bemused "Would I be calling you if they did? The shield is down! Can you start up the back up generator remotely?"

"I can't, the back up generator has a manual interface to prevent Deluxe hacking." Chuck explained, feeling sweat build up slightly under bangs.

"Do you want us to cover you while you start it up?" Dutch offered, Chuck shook his head even though the others couldn't see it.

"No, I'll put Blonde Thunder on autopilot and make the Kane forces think I'm still in it while manually starting up the back-up generator." He explained, already putting Blonde Thunder on 'autopilot' and put coordinates on for the vehicle, along with a randomizer that would pick random weapons or defense when a anything besides one of his teammates vehicles came close enough.

Curling his body into a ball he pressed a button that made his seat suddenly turn into a hatch and making him fall to the ground under Blonde Thunder as the car sped off with Kane forces following to the coordinates he plugged in beforehand.

Using the dust clouds that Blonde Thunder had kicked up with its wheels to hide himself, Chuck ran towards the direction of the generators, keeping himself hidden behind any structures that came up, considering he was well about 2 kilometers away from the generators.

He kept one of the sleeves of his jacket up so he could summon his slingshot at any time he may need to use it.

When he came close to the back-up generator he could see that Stronghorn and Whiptail were still blasting at the oncoming horde of Kane-bots.

Wiping the sweat off of his forehead with his remaining sleeve, Chuck opened the keypad panel and started plugging in the access code, which was about 25 digits long and he mentally counted it off in his head as he punched it in.

'4745875890-'

"Freeze, Burner." A sudden juxtaposition came out of nowhere, making the blonde paused as something jabbed his back, he turned around fast to face the source of the interjection.

"Well," he pretty much deadpanned "isn't this a nice surprise visit." the other end of a metal staff beheld none other Commander Mike Chilton.


	2. Leader vs Commander

"You know, I kind of thought you'd be taller." The Burners leader said to Mike as he made him step away from the back-up generators by keeping his spark staff pressed against his back and nudging him in warning.

"I kind of thought you'd be a blob." Mike replied, prodding Chuck forward - although the Commander actually was caught off guard by seeing Chuck for the first time in person - the hacker had deleted all of his own files in Deluxe so he was mostly a ghost of a man and nothing was known about him besides that fact that he went by 'Chuck'. Mike assumed he was an obese nerd who hid behind a computer like the Wanted Poster in Deluxe alluded too. But instead he was skinny and tall, even if a bit slouchy in posture.

Chuck casually sighed and shrugged, moving ahead as the prodding enforced "Yeah that Wanted Poster isn't very flattering." He expected Chilton to be little more… Harsh.

"Well Chuck, you are under arrest for several counts of hacking and being a defector." Mike said; he didn't let it show that he was taken aback when the blonde Burner started to laugh.

"So I'm a defector huh? I had no idea humans were supposed to think and make decisions for themselves." Chuck sarcastically chuckled, Mike got out the industrial padlocked handcuffs. He knew that despite his unintimidating appearance and demeanor, Chuck was still a criminal genius and should not be underestimated.

Mike grabbed the skinny wrists of the Burners leader and crossed them behind his back "You best stay silent if you want it easy." He didn't see Chuck smirk as he got the handcuffs into place.

"I don't do 'easy' on anyone else's terms." Chuck said as he suddenly opened one of his palms, revealing a small pellet like object. Mike didn't have time to react before a sudden flash of light assaulted his retinas and robbed him of his sight. The pellet was a small flash grenade!

Mike dropped the handcuffs and brought his hands up to his eyes on impulse, trying to rub the white light that blotted out his vision. He heard the blonde make a run for it and tried to follow him

"Stay where you are!" He yelled as he blindly swung his fists where he assumed the other man was, but he missed.

He could hear buttons being hastily pushed, and he knew that Chuck was back at the back-up generator to initiate the manual start up. Mike blinked several times in an attempt to clear his vision, but he could only see basic blurry shapes - that was enough though.

He came up behind the Burner and put his arm over his throat in a tight choke hold, he heard Chuck gasp from his airway being constricted as he tore him away from the back up generator.

CLICK

"…" Mike was silent as he heard that, and although he couldn't see it he could imagine the defector smirk; he was too late, Chuck had punched the whole start-up code in, right before Mike had pulled him away "…Oh no."

"Oh yes~" Chuck said, even though his voice was hoarse - he elbowed Mike in the gut hard enough to loosen his grip and slipped away from the Commanders grasp.

Mike whipped out his spark shaft and had it pointed at the lanky shape he knew to be Chuck

"You won't get away with this, Chuckles." He said

"TEXAS!" A sudden deep voice cried out followed the sound of a loud engine, the shape of a car with bright red streaks whizzed right by and Chuck disappeared right with it.

"Later Mike!" He could hear Chuck from a distance, his vision cleared enough for him to turn and see Chuck basically dangling from the window of a Burner vehicle, a large hand holding him there by the back of his navy jacket - he could also see that Chuck was again making the 'L' on the forehead gesture at him, as the car disappeared back into the rusty cesspool called Motorcity.

Mentally swearing, Mike brought his communicator up to his mouth and made a call to Jenzen "Organize the troops and retreat back to Deluxe, the security grid is back up." He ordered.

"Do you need someone to pick you up?" Cadet Jenzen asked. Although he'd prefer one, he politely refused before turning his communicator off, and running back to Deluxe.

What a waste of talent that someone like Chuck would be on the criminal side.

* * *

"That was great." Chuck said to the other Burners as they sat around Jacob's diner. Chuck was downing a soda as Jakob tended to some random and probably gross dish. "Thanks for the lift, Texas." He said to the shorter man.

"No problem, Texas wasn't going to let the nerd deal with Chilton on his own." Texas announced with a random sound effect and a karate chop. Chuck playfully rolled his eyes. Despite being the leader of the Burners he was still always nerd first in Texas's eyes.

Dutch piped up "So, what was Chilton like?" He asked, nursing a root beer.

'Kinda cute' Chuck's gay thoughts chimed, which differed drastically from what he actually said "Shorter than I thought he'd be." He shrugged and finished off his soda. Honest he knew most physical aspects about Mike from hacking and reading his medical files - height, weight, BMI, resting heart rate, blood type, ect. Still he didn't imagine Mike not being much taller than Texas. He imagined someone more intimidating with a cruel face.

Of course Mike didn't look like he had a cruel bone in his body, but Chuck highly doubted that was genuine. He that Mike wasn't much better than Kane…

His train of thought was broken by Jacob popping a muffin tin full of green muffins with slimy white topping in front of him onto the counter "You know," Jacob said to him with a kind smile "Tomorrow would be the one year anniversary of you becoming a Burner."


	3. Path to the Burners

Julie cringed as she saw Chuck scarf down muffin after muffin despite having just said they were gross, which was completely expected because Jacob said that they were okra-mayonnaise muffins.

"Look," he said between bites "They are honestly the most disgusting things I have ever eaten, but I can't get enough of them, it's really weird."

The redhead crinkled her nose and turned away "Definitely."

He shrugged and finished off his current plate of muffins, drowning them down with coffee from his lucky blue mug that Texas got him as a gift a couple of months ago which had a message on it that read "World's Best Rebel Leader (Not counting Princess Leia)" At that point he didn't know who Princess Leia was so Jacob introduced him to the Star Wars saga, which he thoroughly loved. It was an ancient movie series that Kane had banned because it was considered 'defector propaganda'. Of course he'd ban a movie that's main theme was rebellion against a totalitarian regime. Maybe that's why he loved it so much.

He even had a energy saber that maybe, just maybe was inspired a tiny bit by light-sabers. It was the only close-quarters combat weapon he had, because he preferred avoiding physical combat or using his slingshot to keep distance. He'd much rather outmaneuver his opponents rather than fight them, because he wasn't as much of a fighter as the others were.

Not as much as Mike Chilton.

Chuck shook his head slightly to get the thought of the Kane-Sycophant out of his head. There was no need to let that kind of evil take up valuable space in his brain, especially on a day like this.

Approximately 356 days ago today, Chuck had escaped Deluxe and pledged allegiance to Motorcity, all of it's people, and most importantly the Burners.

He sighed in remembrance of the dark time before his escape. Being a genius in a totalitarian society was pretty much a like being born with a target on your back, especially if you're a scrawny guy who blends into the background like him. Kane decided to use him for his own benefit like he did everyone else, despite Chuck only being a teen he was dragged into being a lower-rung Kane Co programmer, even though he was easily better at it than anyone else, he 'mysteriously' was always passed up for promotions.

After a while, he realized that Kane never wanted him to grow until he proved his loyalty to him. Young, stupid, and eager to please Chuck managed to dig up for him files of old city plans, finding buildings that Kane could tear down and make use out of.

"Yo, nerd, you feeling okay? Or those muffins starting to affect ya?" Texas's question broke Chuck out of his thoughts.

"I'm just thinking." Chuck reassured, taking a sip of his cooling coffee.

"Wow, what a waste of time" Texas said, although most likely he said this to be funny. Although he wasn't smart in the /traditional/ sense, Texas wasn't an idiot as had a plethora of creativity, which was useful when logic could be applied. Of course some of Texas's most outlandish idea's couldn't have logic applied to it no matter what angle you looked at it offered a small smiled and stood up to stretch. His slouching habit always left knots in his back. He popped his neck and shoulders, yawning. Despite the three cups of coffee he just drank, all the caffeine abuse over the past year unfortunately made it harder to get wired on it.

"You have mayo all over your jacket" Chuck looked to to his jacket right as Dutch pointed it out - his jacket was covered in green crumbs and mayonnaise.

He shed it off, leaving him an elbow-sleeved, blue-gray shirt "It needed to be washed anyways" He wore it pretty much 24/7 even as he slept, but that was mostly because the heater would occasionally decide to stop working. He tossed his jacket into a bin.

Jacob was already working on another batch of muffins seeing as Chuck was addicted them already "If you want to wear another jacket while that ones in the wash, I have an old spare one in the back." The older man said.

Not particular cold, but particularly bored, Chuck went to the back to find it. Jacob kept old age retro clothes inside of a closet, mostly stuff he either wore when he was younger or people have left inside or outside of the store over the years.

There was one jacket - it was dark blue with orange trimming, and a a burners symbol on one of the sleeves. Although Chuck liked the color blue better, he decided that wearing it for the the day to stay warm and protect his arms wouldn't hurt.

He slid the jacket on and walked back out, right as an alert came up "Kane-bots" He muttered and pulled up the video screen vid. Indeed, there were Kane-bots, but before Chuck could make an order for the other Burners, something else appeared on screen.

A bright red muscle car was blasting the Kane-Bots; Chuck thought hard and couldn't place the car in any of the other gangs he knew of in Motorcity. "Who's that?" Texas asked before anyone else could.

Chuck thought again, couldn't be Rayon considering the car type and color "I don't know…"

"Well, an enemy of Kane is our friend right?" Texas inquired.

While the logic of 'enemy of thy enemy' was in place, Chuck knew that that wasn't always the case. A common enemy doesn't always equal friend. Almost as quickly as the alert came up, the red flags were off as the Kane-bot was dispatched by the red car, which disappeared.

"Well, whoever they are, they aren't tidy." Chuck bemused "Look's like we're cleaning up the wreckage"

Texas pretty much whined "But whyyy, there aren't any bodies or bots to bust." Texas didn't have much interest in things he couldn't hit.

"To scavenge for parts partly, but also to investigate what a Kane-Bot was doing here alone."

Chuck explained, walking outside towards the cars with the others.

* * *

"Chilton." Kane addressed the Commander of his army as a live video feed of Motorcity around a bot wreckage.

"Yes, Mr. Kane?" Mike stood respectfully at attention - he was on edge due to the tongue-lashing he got from the last failed mission.

"Do we have record of that red car, or the driver?" Kane asked, eyes not leaving the screen.

"No sir." Mike answered simply.

"He's rather resourceful… And doesn't appear to have any allies."

"What are you suggesting sir?"

"I want you to go down to that sewer and Rendezvous with the mysterious red driver."

Mike paused at the order. Go down to Motorcity, a dirty sewer with very little breathable air and alone none the less? Part of him hated the idea, but he was also excited at the prospect "Yes, sir."

* * *

A dreadful feeling welled up in his stomach as he watched the last of the mysterious metal-eating 'bugs' slip through the cracks in the wall, and he knew the uncomfortable gut feeling wasn't from the surplus of muffins. "This bites, literally!" He said to the other Burners - Motorcity framework was entirely metal, if those bugs were loose out there and had the capacity to multiply it was only a matter of time before the entire city was in ruins.

R.O.T.H was cowering behind Dutch, terrified of the bugs despite being made out of complex durable plastics and not metal.

"How are we going to find those tiny things in all a big place like Motorcity?" Julie asked frantically.

"They seem to have a hive mind." Dutch offered, Chuck nodded in agreement with the mechanic

"We'll probably lose a few chunks of Motorcity, but the larger their numbers are the easier they'll be to find"

Chuck was already heading towards Blonde Thunder, although he had a doggy bag full of okra mayonnaise muffins in hand "Better start tracking them, they'll leave behind a trail."

"Maybe you should take it easy on those." Julie said, grossed out, as Chuck swallowed down yet another muffin.

He waved off her concerns "Hey I can handle my muffins, besides, they help me work faster." He tossed the last of the bug 'eggs' into his pile as he deactivated it "Already done with all of my eggs."

Dutch finished the last of his eggs and turned to his bot, horrified to realize all of R.O.T.H's egg pile was still there and none were deactivated. "R.O.T.H! Why didn't you do any of yours?" He demanded just as the eggs began to flash and break off into an all new colony of metal-eating bugs.' R.O.T.H beeped out a few excused, but Dutch stood firm "What do you mean you were scared? You big robotic chicken."

Just then the red car drove up to them. "What the…" Chuck turned as the car door opened, and a man wearing a shabyy suit of arm with glowing red accents walked over. "Who're you?" Chuck asked.

Instead of answering the man punched him square in the face.

He fell back with a thud "Ouch!" He shouted, the other Burners immediately jumped to his aid.'

"Hey! You don't get to beat up our nerd!" Texas shouted and swung at the armored man with his gun-chucks "Texas!". The man dodged and grabbed Texas's shoulders, his fists fizzled with red electricity which tased Texas, stunning the muscular Burner and making him collapse.

Chuck got up - oh god now those muffins were really starting to affect him now that he'd been struck. "What's your problem, Red?" He demanded - he could almost see a a glare of hatred through the red visor of the helmet.

The man, whom he now dubbed 'Red', spat "You know what you did." He accused, pointing at the blonde hacker.

"Today? I did laundry, drank coffee, ate muffins, and oh I don't know am currently trying to save the city from tiny metal eating robots!" Chuck defended sarcastically, although he was unnerved by the red hourglass emblem on the man's armor. It was familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"Don't play dumb with me" Red yelled back, although he wasn't getting any closer with all of the Burners minus Texas pointing their weapons at him.

Chuck pulled out the module of his energy-saber, pressing a button that made a pillar of bright blue energy roughly a yard long popped out. The energy in the saber had two functions - it could be a taser when blue, or it could be a laser-sword when he switched it the red functions. It was blue now, so it couldn't do any real damage other than stunning. "Believe me, I couldn't play dumb if I tried." Chuck warned, although he was already feeling sick enough that he might puke any second.

"You better remember what you did soon…" Red warned, throwing a smoke pellet on the ground and disappearing with a roar of his car.

At that moment Texas popped back up "What happened? Did we win?" The dark haired Burner asked. Chuck groaned and threw a sewer cover off the road, and vomited right into the uncovered hole, not willing to wait for a bucket or toilet. "…Is that a no?" Texas added to his question, quite awkwardly.

* * *

Mike quietly walked towards the place where Kane had told him too, he kept quiet and hidden best he could, but he feared his white and blue uniform was too much of a sore thumb in the dark and gritty area. He found himself almost panting from the air that was thick compared to the clean air in Deluxe. He hoped being down here wouldn't give him lung cancer or something. It was well known that breathing an hours worth of Motorcity it was like smoking a whole pack of cigarettes at once (which were illegal and banned in Deluxe, but were in rampant use in Motorcity).

He stopped when he heard a sudden cry, he ran towards it thinking somebpdy was hurt but stopped in his tracks when he saw it was the mysterious man in armor, and the Burners leader. One of the Burners, the one who drove the car known as Stronghorn, was on the ground, unconscious.

"You… You were one of the people who lost your home." He heard Chuck say the man in the armor "In the demolition of these buildings." Mike perked up and strained to pick up as much as he could.

The red clad man growled behind his helmet "And you were the one who dug up the files of the existence of these buildings for Kane."

That definitely caught Mike's attention - did Chuck use to work for Kane? It'd be the first Mike heard of it.

When I found out those buildings were occupied, I tried to tell Kane to halt the project, he ignored me!" Chuck defended "I evacuated those people in time, I had to renounce my Deluxe citizenship to do so! If anything you should blame Kane for not halting it, and Chilton for making the order!"

The hidden brunet thought hard about what was just said; demolition project?…Oh right, he remembered that a year ago he was supposed to make a demolition order in this orea to clear out some abandoned buildings, but he fell sick that morning and Kane lead the expedition himself.

But… those buildings were occupied? Surely Chuck was lying, Kane would evacuate the buildings if he knew people were in there.

Right?

Yes, defininetely, Chuck was either lying or strung out on something like everyone else in Motorcity.

Red flung at him and Chuck took big steps back. Close quarters combat was not his strong suit, that's why he brought Texas with him. But Texas was incapacitated at the moment, so the blonde burner was on his own. Knowing that his slingshot had little use without enough distance he took out his energy-saber and put it it's red laser mode. "Im warning you," Chuck said as he circled with his opponent, holding the lightsaber imitation up threateningly "I won't hold back If I have to hurt you."

His opponent threw himself at him again, slamming Chuck with several punches, which Chuck either dodged to was forced to take. He managed to make several slices in Red's armor, but he didn't have the heart or stomach to actually use his energy-saber to pierce the maniac's skin.

When Red decked him, it was as if his lights were knocked out and he fell back, almost unconscious. On the ground, Chuck felt himself getting easily lifted up by the collar, and then dragged to the nearby cliff. "Any last words?" Red sneered.

"Looks like my boyfriend's here," Chuck said, smirking despite a trickle of blood running down his face from his head, and he pointed to where Commander Chilton stood "Hey Mikeyyy dear, what took you so long? I'm having to beat guys off with a stick while I'm waiting for you. I almost thought you stood me up"

He swore he saw the Kane Commander's face flush as he strode over "Sir," Mike said to the armored man, sneaking glances at Chuck every now and then "On behalf of Kane Co I have a proposition for you."

"Not interested," Red snarled before he would hear the proposition, because he was looking at Mike he didn't notice Chuck pull something out of his pocket.

"Hey Red," Chuck said, catching his attackers attention "catch." He threw one of the robotic eggs at Red just as it popped open with an brand new bugs.

"What the-!" Red yelled and dropped Chuck, trying to shake the bugs off of him as they ate through his armor. After a few seconds his suit shorted out and deactivated the bugs on him, but not before he took a misstep on the cliff and fell.

Mike and Chuck both gasped as the saw the man fall, but running over they saw that the man was clinging to a rock that jutted out of the cliff. "Grab my hand!" Mike said as he leant down, hand outstretched towards the man. This greatly surprised Chuck

"Never" The man spat out slowly, he visor fixated on Chuck.

He let got of the rock.

He plummeted.

Chuck sighed sadly, taking steps back and picking up his energy saber, slipping it back onto the belt loop of his jeans.

"You're still wanted for arrest." Mike said as he took a step towards the blonde Burner.

"As much as I'd love to go out with you again I'm afraid I'm dissatisfied that you left me waiting for so long, maybe another time" Chuck said, when the army commander took another step towards him Chuck slid his jacket off and threw it at Mike's face to obscure his vision, and ran off in Texas's direction.

Confused and once again disappointed that he couldn't arrest Chuck, he looked at the article of clothing that'd been thrown at him as a distraction. It wasn't too different from his Kane Co. jacket, except he liked the look and feel of it much better - it was dark blue with orange accents. And the notorious Burners symbol on one of the sleeves.

It was strange seeing an article of clothing that wasn't white and pale blue, but he didn't feel like tossing it away. It looked kinda cool, and it didn't smell terrible like the air around here, it smelled like Earthy and kinda like coffee. He guessed that was Chuck's scent.

He whacked himself in the head to focus "What am I doing, thinking over what the enemies scent is?" He folded up the jacket and kept it hidden under his Kane Co. issued jacket as he walked back in the direction of Deluxe.

* * *

"Getting that block of iron from the Duke wasn't easy you know." Julie told Chuck as soon as he showed back up at Jacobs store, the trickle of blood that ran down his face from the wound on his head was dried by now.

He grabbed a wet nap before replying "Sorry, well, I don't think Red's gonna drop by anytime soon." The unintentional play on words made him cringe.

His plan was to use an oxidizing spray on the block of iron that would attract and then deactivate off of the bugs. The fact that the Duke helped them surprised him a bit, the guy was well-known for being a snobby prick.

Nonetheless, that plan had worked. Even though guys like Kane and Mike Chilton still walked around, today was saved at least.

Although… He couldn't stop thinking about how Mike had tried to save Red's life. Mike was a monster, he ordered the demolition of a building that was known to be inhabited.

Why would he show such compassion when he's supposed to be incapable of it?

The thought dissipated from his head when Jacob laid down a fresh batch of okra mayonnaise muffins.

_To be continued..._


	4. Riding Shotgun

"Tooley's down in Motorcity?"

"Yes," Kane answered Mike's question without turning around "the fool didn't realize I did not mean a literal party was happening in Motorcity, and went down there to 'attend' it." He seemed more angry than concerned, but Mike knew that this was probably because Tooley's incompetence can be frustrating at times.

"What is actually going on in Motorcity?" For the past few days or so Mike had been too preoccupied with training a new batch of cadets to keep tabs on any plans in Motorcity.

"I released several clouds of 'party poppers' there." Kane replied simply - alarm bells went off in his commander's head; he knew that 'party poppers' was a code name for a bio weapon that comprised of virus-like nanites that caused mindless and almost primal aggression in humans.

"Bystanders could get hurt by that-" He stopped his sentence when Kane gave him a stern glare, and knew he'd spoken out of line.

"It is supposed to be a wake up call to the 'Motorcitizens' - the a temporary and completely reversal 'virus' with no lasting side effects. They live in a sewer, imagine if there was an outbreak of cholera? Typhoid? They should see that they are making the wrong choice in living and forcing their children to live in such an unclean environment."

Mike just nodded, he supposed he was right but still… a person on that virus could run off a building or bridge and get seriously hurt or worse, because they have no thought process to their actions. "Well, I'm going to go get Tooley before he get's hurt."

"Do you want a troop to back you up?" Kane asked

Mike shook his head and turned to the room where the hazmat suits were kept "I don't want to put anyone else at risk."

* * *

"This suckssss." Chuck groaned in his protective hazmat suit - Dutch and R.O.T.H had just gotten back but all of the other Burners, including Jacob, were affected by the virus. After being chased by a horde he and Dutch were separated, and now he had no idea if the mechanic was infected or not.

He tried keeping as quiet as possible as he sat inside of Blonde Thunder; which he kept hidden in a junk pile as not to catch the attention of zombies. He'd managed to snag a small sliver of clothing from an infected person and was trying to scan it for the virus.

When the scan was complete he magnified the image and saw that tiny nanobots were crawling around the cloth. "A… Technovirus?" He wondered aloud. It wasn't too different from a Trojan Horse virus he supposed, but it was physical and made humans malfunction rather than computers. But these were tiny and the numbers were great, what could be done to stop all of them at once? An jolt of electricity could do the job of shutting them down, but that could hurt people in the process, especially older people with pacemakers.

He heard a clatter outside and brought of a live visual feed of what was going on outside, he saw a lone figure walking around, clearly trying to stay hidden as well. "Well well well," he said "what's Mike Chilton doing all the way down here?"

Kane was the one who put this virus down here, why would he send his top dog too?  
He couldn't ponder the question because he saw Mike start to run, and he was being chased by a horde of infected people.

The cold, calculating and rational part of Chuck was tempted to just leave the Kane Co. commander to the mercy of the zombified people like he deserved. Unfortunately Chuck was too human to actually let that happened (but oh, he could dream couldn't he?)

He started up Blonde Thunder as he could see from the live feed that Mike got his metal staff out to fight off some of the zombified Motorcitizens. Chuck drove up, careful to not hit anyone and opened the passenger door "Get in!" He yelled at Mike.

"What-"

"COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE." He shouted, unable to resist quoting the Terminator, especially since Mike most likely hadn't watched the banned movie. Mike took the not-at-all-subtle hint and jumped into the passenger seat, slamming the door closed and prompting Chuck to drive for for off in the opposite direction of the horde.

* * *

It was relatively silent for a few awkward seconds as Chuck questioned his own sanity for aiding the enemy.

"You should probably put your seatbelt on Mikey." Chuck said without taking his eyes off the road.

"My what?" Mike asked, and Chuck remembered that Mike didn't know how cars worked because they weren't allowed in Deluxe.

"That belt with the metal part on it - you clip it into the other buckle on the side of the seat." Chuck explained "It's so that you don't get hurt or fly off your seat if the car collides with something or takes a sharp turn." Mike managed to clip it on as told. "So Mikey, what's a cinnamon roll - no, Deluxe cinnamon roll like you doing all the way down here?" The blonde noticed that the Kane Co. soldier wasn't as nervous or fidgety in a car as Chuck expected him to be, especially considering that it was his first real car ride, which were demonized in Deluxe culture. Chilton had stones, Chuck gave him that,

"Don't call me that." Mike said with an eyeroll; whether he meant Deluxe cinnamon roll or Mikey, Chuck wasn't sure. "I'm looking for Tooley."

"That big dumb bully stereotype that works for Kane?" Chuck inquired, earning somewhat of a chuckle from Mike at the description "Why's he here?"

"He… thought there was a party and invited himself." Mike explained, feeling quote awkward because it was just as absurd as it sounded.

Chuck processed that for a second "…Wow. I don't know if I should find that funny or sad."

"Well, it's true. I'm not here looking for a fight, I just want to bring Tooley back to Deluxe safely." Mike explained, hands folded down in his lap. It sounded genuinely noble but Chuck didn't buy it.

"It'd be a nice taste of your own medicine if you and him got infected by this," Chuck said coldly, before Mike could retort Chuck shushed him so he open his his communicator. He sent a call out to Dutch, and thankfully the mechanics head icon came up soon, signalling that he wasn't infected. "Are you okay Dutch? What's your status?"

"Chuck, man, me and R.O.T.H managed to find a way to reverse this." The mechanic said frantically, from the background noise Chuck could tell that Dutch was busy assembling something frantically.

"It's not a electronic pulse right? That's too risky."

"No"

"What are you building then?"

"A giant laser dragon."

"…" The answer made both Mike and Chuck give each other weird looks "…Dutch have you gotten into the stash of whatever drugs Texas is on?" Chuck asked sarcastically, Mike looked horrified because he was a Deluxe cinnamon-roll after all, and had to actually think hard on whether or not they were serious.

"No, dude, just trust me." Dutch assured; the idea sounded ridiculous but Chuck knew better than to question the other Burners judgement.

"Alright Dutch, what's your location?"

"Central Station."

Chuck nodded "I'll be there soon." He ended the call, and took a freeway that'd lead to the central station. "Look, Tooley's more than likely infected by now, you won't be able to get him until he's cured with everyone else."

"And you actually think your Mechanic can save the whole city?" Mike was clearly not convinced, had had his arms and legs cross as he sat.

"That mechanic is one of the most brilliant men I know," Chuck defended "if Dutch says he can cure Motorcity of a zombie virus with a giant laser dragon, that's what he's gonna do."

"Are you strung out on drugs too?" Mike asked sarcastically.

**SLAP**

Mike held his cheek as he reeled away, a bright red handprint embedded in his tan face "You…"

"Listen here you; I know in Deluxe you're all hoity-toity about everything, but when I made that drug remark to Dutch, it was a fucking joke. Just because we aren't stupid puppies who live in Kane's golden and cushioned kennel doesn't mean you're better than us. Shut your damn mouth before I throw you out there with the zombies." Chuck's tone made Mike go silent. No one ever talked to Mike that way. Kane gave him commands and explained things logically, it usually showed his temper to others and not Mike himself. The other Kane Co. soldiers treated him as an authority figure. Chuck was the first person his own age who never spoke to him as authority, but just another peer.

The rest of the ride was quiet.

Although the ride wasn't very long, because Blonde Thunder suddenly stopped.

"What just happened? Why isn't it going?" Mike asked, the handprint on his face thankfully rubbed off.

Chuck sighed and pointed the the dashboard, where on of the gauges were pointed at a bright red 'E' "Blonde's out of gas"

"Out of gas?!" Mike didn't know much about cars since they were illegal, but one thing he did know is that didn't charge or recharge like the buildings in Deluxe, they ran on gasoline. "Why didn't you refill it?"

"Oh I don't know, Mikey maybe because for the past few days my city has been overrun by everyone I know being turned in mindless zombies!" Chuck snapped and took the keys out of the ignition "Come on, we're hoofing it the rest of the way."

The brunet didn't argue, he just walked opened the passenger door and exited the vehicle. He was a bit disappointed though, he actually liked the car ride…

"Come on," Chuck waved him over as he started towards the direction of the Central Station, Mike followed, keeping right at his side "get your weapon ready in case if we're blitz, but don't get any ideas, try to attack me and you'll regret it." Mike got out the scull module that his spark staff extended from, while Chuck got his saber out and turned it on to it's blue setting.

"…So, what exactly is that stick supposed to be? A hard-light stuck?" Mike asked out of curiosity.

"Its an energy saber - it's based on light sabers." Chuck answered simply, although he knew Mike didn't know what lightsabers were, but the Kane Co. commander didn't press for answers. "Where'd you get the skull module? It's made of metal." Deluxe typically didn't use metal, usually they used synthetic polymers instead.

"Just… A souvenir from a car burning." Mike shrugged, which made Chuck frown slightly at the thought.

Both boys turned when they heard the screaming growls of an oncoming horde "This isn't gonna be fun." Chuck muttered, putting the blue taser on its lowest setting.

"I dunno," Mike smirked at him, extending his staff out of the skull module "it might be."

"I'll consider taking your word for it Mikey."

They both ran at the horde.

* * *

"You're not bad," The Kane Co. soldier said to Chuck as the slinked near the Central Station; they could both hear a roar-like noise along with several hoards rushing into the station, the station was alight with several flashes of intense light "not so much at fighting, but you're resourceful."

Chuck shrugged, and sighed in relief when he saw groups of people gather on the outside of the station, completely normal "I hope you know this is a temporary truce, once everyone is cured and you got your meathead back, we'll be enemies again."

"…We don't have to be, you know." Mike offered, noticing Chuck pause "Look, you're wasting your abilities down here. You should come to Deluxe where you can be safe and accomplish more." Chuck's quality of life had to be extremely low down here, he could be safer and healthier if he lived in Deluxe where he wouldn't have to worry about things to drug use, diseases and other things associated with living in such an unsanitary and virtually lawless place.

Chuck looked down to his temporary companion "You really have no idea what you've lost from living in Deluxe, do you? Sure, you live under the illusion of being completely safe, but you live in a state of dependence with no real freedoms." He said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, Mike didn't exactly appreciate being talked down to "If anything, you should ditch Kane Co."

Before Mike could make the speech about how wrong that suggestion was, someone called over "Chiltonnnn," it was Tooley stumbling over, clearly confused and disoriented.

"Think about it," Chuck said as he backed off to disappear, before Tooley could see him.

"You alright Tooley?" Mike asked as the simple-minded man leant on him for support.

"I hurt." He groaned. "That party was too intense."

"Let's just go Tooley," Mike said as he patted his comrades shoulder, as they walked off he couldn't help looking back at where Chuck had disappeared too, and wondered what he meant when he said that Deluxe had no real freedom.

_To be continued..._


	5. Dungeons and Deluxians

Near the charging ports that bordered Motorcity and Detroit Deluxe, a lone figure walked down with his hands in his pockets and gaze cast to the ground as he came up to the outskirts of town. An incoming call came up on his communicator and he brought up the video feed to answer.  
"Chilton," Kane said to his commander "have you infiltrated without issue?"

Mike nodded "No issue Kane, although I haven't come across any people yet."

"Good… and what is that dreadful garb you're wearing?" Kane asked, noticing the jacket that Mike was wearing.

The jacket was the one Chuck had ditched on him a few months ago when they encountered Red, which Mike had kept hidden this whole time. But he wrapped an orange bandanna around the bicep portion of one of the sleeves to hide the Burners logo "It's to help me blend in, sir." Mike explained, which was at least part of the reason "I'd stick out like a sore thumb if I walked around in my uniform. It's just a pixelated illusion is all." He knew if Kane knew the jacket was real he'd be told to toss it.

"Alright Chilton, don't fail your mission on stopping those Utilitons from coming anywhere near Deluxe." Mike politely nodded again at the order and ended the call, putting his communicated back in his pocket. He adjusted the jacket around him more snugly - whilst the disguise excuse was valid, he put it on mostly because he just liked the way that it looked and felt, it somehow fit him better than his uniform did even though the uniform was tailored exactly for him.

* * *

"Sam and Phillip are missing?!" Chuck aka Lord Vanquisher gasped, keeping his floor length cowl around him for dramatic flair and entrance. Ruby the Darkslayer and Thurman the Magnificent, two Raymanthian knights from his guild. His fellow Burners just stared at them confused.

"Who're these dorks, nerd?" Texas asked him. Ruby the Darkslayer instantly got out her plastic sword and threatened him with it.

"I should cut your tongue out for talking to Lord Vanquisher like that." She hissed.

"Stand down loyal disciple, for he does not understand our ways," Lord Vanquisher calmed her down, staying in-character, then turned to the Burners "These guys are fellow LARPers." He explained, out of character.

"LARPers…?" Dutch inquired.

"We do live action roleplay - no Texas it isn't /that/ type of roleplay wipe that smirk off of your face." Chuck had his arms crossed "I have a life outside of the Burners you know."

"If that's what you want to call it." Dutch muttered, but Chuck still heard him and rolled his eyes.  
"Come Lord Vanquisher, we have to return to Raymanthia and seek out the Oracle," Thurman the Magnificent said "time is of the utmost importance if we are to find our wayward kinsmen." Chuck nodded and started to follow.

"Wait so, are those dudes actually missing or is this part of the game?" Texas asked as he, Dutch, Julie and R.O.T.H followed along as well.

"They are missing for real," Chuck said, keeping his voice quiet so his 'knights' wouldn't hear him speaking out of character "so this is serious."

* * *

Mike came up to the basement he was told to go to, the coordinates were plugged into his communicator "Here goes nothing…" He said as he entered, using a 'flashlight' function of his spark staff to light up the darkened tunnels for a few feet in front of him.

Distantly he could hear voices but they were too faint for him to find familiar. Who else'd be down here? Was it the bots? After all he hadn't specified if the Interrogator was capable of speech or not.

Suddenly he could hear distant screaming and feet pounding on the ground, and it was getting closer.

"What the f-"

**WHAM**

The brunet was knocked to the ground with an a sudden force, hitting the back of his head against the concrete ground in the process. "Ow…" He muttered under his breath and looked up at what knocked him down.

"Oh hey Mike." Chuck, who happened to be sitting right on top of Mike, greeted casually as if it were the most typical thing on earth to be straddling your enemy in the middle of dark underground tunnels.

"…" Mike didn't know how to respond besides just looking up at the other boy.

Chuck continued the conversation casually, as if nothing about the situation was odd at all "Fancy running into you here - hey is that the jacket I lost? I completely forgot about it."

Mike finally spoke up "…Can you please get off of me." In response the blonde pressed a finger against Mike's lips to shush him.

"No, listen, did you hear that?" Chuck asked, even though Mike couldn't answer since he was being shushed, but Chuck probably wasn't expecting an answer anyways "The bots took a different turn than me."

"You're after Utilitons and the Interrogator too?"

"Yeah, they captured some guys from my kingdom."

"…?"

"Long story-"

Suddenly a robotic screech caught their attention and they saw a Utiliton running towards them. Chuck tried to get his slingshot ready but since it was a ranged weapon it wouldn't do much damage without momentum and they both knew it. On instinct Mike stood up, staying in front of Chuck and in an instant had his staff out, and used it to strike the robot in a sweeping motion that sent it flying to the side and crashing to the wall.

Mike grabbed Chuck by the wrist and dragged him down the tunnel and away from the crazy robot.

"Oh no," Chuck groaned once they'd stopped, since Mike was sure that they were in a safe area "this is terrible."

"Terrible? That I saved you from death?" Mike quirked an eyebrow. Maybe Chuck was the prideful type that couldn't accept help from an enemy.

"No, now you're the King of Raymanthia" Chuck told him, melodramatically dejected.

The Kane Co. commander blinked in confusion "Ray…manthia?" He drawled out slowly, not knowing what that was. Chuck put a coat-of-arms like patch on Mikes jacket before explaining that those were the rules of LARPing and now Mike was apparently the king of a LARP realm called Raymanthia because anyone who saves or defeats the Lord of the Realm becomes the new Lord. He also informed Mike that he was down there to save two of his 'squires'.

"If you're going to be King of Raymanthia though, you need a LARP name though, hmmm, hence for in the Realm you shall be known as 'Mike the smiling dragon'." Chuck said way more dramatically than he needed to and in completely different mannerisms from how he normally spoke. Mike guessed it was to stay in character.

It was honestly the most nerdy thing Mike had ever witnessed. And from an enemy leader none the less.

It was kind of cute.

Mike mentally slapped himself for thinking that the rebel leader of the Burners and his associated actions was cute. He wasn't cute, he was insane.

Insanely cute.

The Motorcity air was really starting to affect his brain.

* * *

"Oh no," Julie muttered when she saw Chuck walk back over with Mike. She grabbed Chuck's floor-length cowl from earlier and put it on, along with making a hologram of a skull mask over her face. Mike was her friend in Deluxe, but unlike Claire he had no idea she was a Burner.

"What the heck is he doing here." Dutch asked, pointing an accusing finger at Mike, before Chuck could answer Ruby the Darkslayer gasped, noticing the patch on his shirt.

"Lord Vanquisher? Have you been defeated?"

"I'm afraid he saved my skin," Chuck said with a disappointed sigh "your new king is Mike the smiling dragon."

"Wait so, the Kane Co. commander is a nerd too?" Texas asked, a confused look on his face.

Mike put his hands up defensively "I'm not here to fight or rule anyone, I was sent here to take the Interrogator out."

"Take out the Interrogator? All by your lonesome? /You/?" Chuck inquired, then laughed "Is Kane trying to replace you without firing you or something? Having budget cuts?"

"What are you trying to suggest?" The brunet asked, quite offended.

"You're one guy, this is a giant robot with a army of smaller robots."

"Do you think I'm incompetent?"

"You told me months ago I was under arrest but look at me still walking as a free man"

"Not for long-"

"Could you two stop arguing for a moment?" Jacob broke in, exasperated by their petty squabble "We need to focus on saving the two boys and defeating the interrogator."

"There is not defeating the master," A small bot said to the old man "it is useless."

"…Aren't you Jacob, the number one most wanted terrorist?" Mike asked, shocked to be in the presence of such a notoriously dangerous criminal.

"Okay Deluxe cinnamon-roll, you need to understand that in Deluxe pretty much everyone who thinks that Kane is a cocksucking motherfucker is considered a terrorist." muttered Chuck.

Mike was about to set the other boy straight, but the structure around them started to shake and a metallic roaring could be heard.

"The master is here!" The bot said in what could only be perceived as terror.

The giant mecha interrogator broke in, and the ceiling started to cave in, separating the groups into two; one had Mike, Julie and Jacob, with the Interrogator, the other had Chuck, Dutch, Texas, the LARPers and the bots.

Dutch was beating against the rocks "We can't get through this!"

Being his usual tough guy self, Texas commented "Why not?"

An idea came to Chuck "Hold on," he said as he grabbed Thurman the Magnificients shield and started sketching on the back of it "I know how to get through this, but I'm going need to borrow your van."

* * *

Now, Mike was loyal to Deluxe. Extremely loyal. But he wasn't heartless, when the mysteriously masked female Burner told him to go through the broken vents to get the two boys Sam and Phillip, he listened, as she distracted the Interrogator.

His beef was with the Burners, not those two kids.

He threw a rope down when he saw the room they were imprisoned in "Hey, Sam, Phillip, come up." He called quietly, he saw they fearfully shook their heads. Oh boy, they weren't coming up easily.

Mike slid down the rope the be on their level, when the chubby one noticed the patch on Mike's jacket "Are you the king of the realm?" He asked, sounding both meek and amazed.

Wanting to earn their trust, the Kane Co. commander went along with it "You bet your butt I am," he said with a small but characteristic smile "Lord Smiling Dragon at your service. Now get up there, squire."

* * *

Okay, I'll admit that looks pretty cool" Texas admired the design that Chuck had sketched up, with showed a drill made of his lance and the LARPers van.

"There's no way we can build that in time," Dutch stated mournfully.

"We can get them to help us," Texas pointed to the group of Utilitons

"Oh no," Dutch threw his arms up "you cannot seriously be saying we ask for help from robots that just tried to kill us."

One of the robots spoke up "We cannot help you, our master will punish our disloyalty-"

"No! He is not your master!" Chuck, his Lord Vanquisher persona showing "You are in the Kingdom of Raymanthia, and in Raymanthia every man - er, sentient beings - is free! Break your chains, rebel against your former slaveholder and help us defeat it!"

* * *

Somehow Chuck's completely dorky and cliche speech ended up working and winning the bots over, and they managed to get the lance and other tech mounted on top of the van, with Chuck manning it at the top.

"Charge!" He commanded.

"You got it," Thurman the Magnificent said and put the van into drive, colliding into the wall of rocks that separated them from the Interrogator and the others.

In a mere few seconds the drilled right through the wall of collapsed ceiling. "Keep going! Right at it!" The van did as Chuck said. Struck with more brilliance, Chuck grabbed his energy-saber, put it on its red laser setting and held it with the lance. He saw the Interrogator had Mike in its clutches, which truthfully got Chuck feeling even more determined.

Because no one was allowed to hurt Mike. Besides Chuck. No one besides Chuck.

The lance and saber connected with the weak point on the robot and it almost instantly started shutting down, he saw that Mike safely made it back to the ground, which relieved Chuck quite a bit.

When the bot fell, so did Chuck, who stumbled a bit but made it back to his feet.

The LARPers, Burners, and bots cheered for the blonde man, who could only nervously smile and pant as he shut his energy saber off.

"So… the rule was you're Lord of the Realm if you defeat or save the current king right?" Said

Mike as he walked up to his rival.

"Yeah…"

"Then, looks like you're king again, Lord Vanquisher." Mike smirked and tossed the patch towards the Burner.

Chuck didn't say a word, just put it back on as he was surrounded by the LARPers, who were cheering.

"You're still under arrest though."

"Right, come get me bitch" Chuck challenged, Mike saw the people and bots surrounding the blonde and knew it was a fruitless attempt. The Kane Co. commander turned and hightailed it out. "Join the Burners Miiiiikey." Chuck called after him, it was tempting to go after him, but Chuck was kind of tired.

And besides, if he did he'd be late for the battle with the Bardonians.

_To be continued..._


	6. Boost

Sometimes Chuck questioned why there were so many people who were on the side of evil. However, as he was being chased up the Cabler settlement up to the 20th level to set up an anti-bot pulse, Kane Co. soldiers including Commander Chilton nipping at his heels, he remembered that being a good guy required a lot of work.

"It's not that I'm not flattered Mikey," he called back towards Mike without turning around "but the audience would really kill the mood!" He almost smirked when he hear a couple of the soldiers stumble at his statement. Almost.

He felt the Commanders metal staff swing at him but he managed to dodge it, Although Mike seemed normal the other Kane soldiers seemed off - much faster than normal. That put Chuck at a serious disadvantage due to not being very strong or fast himself.

Finally he came up to the 20th level.

Unfortunately, the panel was on the side of the building.

Swearing under his breath and almost doing the sign of the cross, he threw himself off the edge.

Before he could grab a cable, his ankle was caught on something. "Gotcha!" He heard Mike say, and he popped his eyes open to see that Mike had jumped down, had grabbed his ankle, and was currently holding onto a bright red energy line/rope that the other soldiers kept them up by "What the hell is wrong with you?!" Chuck kept his face straight but he mentally cringed at how angry to Brunet sounded, he wasn't sure if it f l was for attempting to escape or risking his life "Why are you Motorcity defectors all so insane?" The other soldiers were hoisting them back up "…Are you crying?"

"No, I'm not!" Chuck snapped defensively, though it was an obvious lie. Prior to escaping Deluxe Chuck had been easily scared by everything, often screaming in terror. When he became a Motorcitizen and a Burner he learned to repress his fear and keep it all inside, unfortunately when he was afraid at an extreme level, instead of screaming tears would stream out of his eyes. He hated himself for it.

"Don't try anything," Mike warned, as they were slowly being hoisted up.

"Or what, you'll drop me?" Chuck muttered, it was a gutsy thing to say, especially since if Mike were any other Kane soldier he'd drop Chuck with no problem or remorse. The blonde kept his eyes on the walls, knowing that Mike was looking up instead of at him, when they came by the panel he hastily opened it and punched the code in before he was too far away to do so.

When they were high enough, he grabbed an emergency flash grenade that he kept strapped on the inside of his jacket - it was a small, only about two inches in diameter, but it'd be effective. Mike was first to climb up to the ledge, and he personally dragged Chuck up.

The blonde rebel leader was being held in place from behind by Mike, and there was no way he could break Mike's grasp no matter how much he squirmed. But, he had a plan of course; they could outnumber and outstrength him, but not outsmart.

With his one free hand, he reached down and squeezed Mike's backside.

Gasping in a mix of surprise and horror, Mike loosed his grasp enough for Chuck to shove him away and throw the flash grenade to the ground. The soldiers blinded and Mike distracted, Chuck made a run for it.

* * *

"WHY did you let the fugitive escape, Chilton?" Mike cringed as Kane yelled at him, leering over him with his arms up exasperatedly. "This has got to be the dozenth time you've had him and he escaped. That Cable structure was supposed to be taken down in ten months time, but that was a year ago! HOW did he evade you this time?"

"Well, sir, uh," The military commander was still quite flustered at how Chuck had, but having to explain to his boss that a notorious criminal rebel leader had escaped him by grabbing his ass? "He… tased with his his energy staff weapon." It was a necessary lie, lucky for Mike the other soldiers had been in front and therefore weren't at an angle to see what Chuck had done.

Still, Kane's eyes narrowed "Don't let it happen again, Chilton." The brunet nodded curtly "Better redeem yourself soon, we're mounting another raid. Use intimidation if you must, but you can't continue making a fool of yourself to that worthless Burner."

* * *

"Dutch really seems to have a liking for the Cabler architect," Chuck chuckled to Julie quietly as they watched their usually brilliant mechanic act clumsy around Tennie, resident and architect of the Cabler settlement "funny to watch him act this way."

Julie nudged him rib with her elbow "You're one to talk," she teased "ever seen yourself around Claire?" She had him there. Being a technological genius, Chucks one shortcoming (*cough*of many*cough) was his blatant inability to talk normally to girls he found cute, Claire being the prime example.

"I don't think she's into people like me." He waved off with a faint blush; by people he meant the male species in general. He had a sneaking suspicion she was a closeted homosexual. Although that may just be an excuse he made up to bandage his bruised ego, as she showed no interest in him despite his obvious massive crush on her.

"Oh by the way," Julie handed him a bracelet-like device "one of the soldiers dropped this."

"What is it?" He asked, studying it, namely the red rectangular module in the center.

"A booster, it increases physical capabilities." Julie explained "that's why they seemed more beefed up than usual." He merely nodded "You could study it or something if you want, I just thought you'd be interested to know what we're up against."

He pondered the concept even as Julie turned away; a machine that could expand physical ability?

He wasn't as physically capable as the Kane Co. soldiers, or Mike, or as his male teammates. The only real combative advantage he had was his knowledge of reversals that Jacob taught him, his stamina, and flexibility; but those were nothing considering he could be bashed up pretty easily by any of Kane's trained soldiers. He just wasn't designed to fight.

Chuck clipped the device onto the handle of his energy saber; he'd use it in case of emergencies.

* * *

After a quick trip to Antonios, and then backed to headquarters, Chuck decided to just relax and listen to music. He was listening on his earbuds from a CD player; Dutch often cringed at the device because of how primitive it was, but truthfully Chuck liked it's simplicity. Sure he had a huge digital library of illegally hacked and downloaded songs, but having an actual physical disk just appealed to him for some reason.

A very loud red alert suddenly materialized out of nowhere and startled him enough to make him fall off of Blonde Thunder. He ripped his earbuds off and could hear Jacob announce that the Cabler colony was under siege.

Where Dutch still was.

When he saw Julie and Texas come out of Jacob's place towards Nine Lives and Stronghorn, he grabbed his keys from his pocket and hopped into his own vehicle.

A call came in abruptly as he buckled himself, and the visual window opened before he accepted it. It was Mike, who looked none too pleased, most likely he was still irked about Chuck's tactic of copping a feel in order to escape. "Oh hey Mike, look I can't talk right now."

"The hounds are on their way." Mike sneered with a small grin.

"Aw you got me a puppy, Mikey you shouldn't have." Chuck grinned back at him, not letting himself get intimidated.

"You're a freak."

"You should see me in the sheets." Chuck both regretted and did not regret that he just said that, but his own words definitely caught him off guard. He closed the call down before Mike could even respond.

* * *

"Ngghhh, that booster's some intense stuff…" Chuck groaned softly as he came to, he'd put the booster on when he was faced with a platoon of soldiers alone; it had been a pretty intense rush, and he'd taken several soldiers down before he fell off of a ledge onto the ledge of a level several stories down. He'd grimly assumed he died when everything went black, but judging by the fact he was waking up the booster must have increased his durability also.

"Well well, if it isn't Chuckles." He heard, he looked up and saw Mike walking up. The blonde jumped to his feet to face him "So, I can see you're wearing a booster." He muttered, seeing his sually maya-blue eyes had changed to a deep crimson color, something he'd seen in all soldiers who wore the boosters.

"Emergency tactic," Chuck replied as he and the other boy circled each other in fighting stance, an all-too-familiar situation, but this time Chuck was a little more at par with Mike thanks to the booster "but let's not talk about me. Does it get you off to destroy people's homes? To kill them if they don't obey?"

"I'd never kill anybody!"

"Bullshit! I never forgot what you did!" The blonde spat with venom, hand curling into a tight fist.

"What did I do then?"

"On your first mission as Commander, you demolished those homes, even though they weren't abandoned and had people in them." Chuck recounted, remembering that events that led him to escape Deluxe and eventually to the Burners. The other just looked at him shocked "How many innocent people have to die before you and Kane are satisfied?"

"Chuck, listen… I didn't lead my first official expedition," Mike said, sounding surprisingly gentle "On the day I was supposed to lead the demolition, I was in the sick bay with a fever." The rebel leader felt his fist loosen up somewhat "I'd never demolish buildings that had people in them." He wanted to believe him, it'd make so much sense, Mike never acted in ways that seemed peculiarly cruel or inhuman.

Chuck still didn't trust him, nor fully believe that excuse; he wasn't going to convinced by someone who was dead-set on arresting him. Good things never happened to skinny blonde guys like Chuck in prison. "Yeah, sure Mikey." He rebuked, unconvinced.

"Look… you don't have to do this anymore." Mike continued "I'm Kane's right-hand man, I can talk him into not locking you up, you can work for the right side and put a stop to all of this insanity."

"You're cute and all but that's not gonna happen." Chuck whipped out his energy saber and fired it on it's blue taser setting, sprinting towards the other, Mike ran at him in return with his metal staff.

The two's weapons clashed briefly, but then the ground beneath them began to shake. Chuck realized that the Cabler colony was loosening somewhat at the seams and would continue to do so unless something was done soon. Chunks of steel and concrete rained down from the higher levels, and in response Chuck took steps back from Mike and used his arms to shield his head. Mike did the same but when the floor shook again he stumbled, tripped on a rock and fell on Chuck; he brought his hands down to drip the blondes shoulders. At that moment a chunk of falling concrete struck the soldier right in the back of his head, knocking him out and making him collapse, completely unconscious.

Chuck held him up; his put an alert on his communicator that would activate Blonde Thunder, which was his communicator was synced to, and make the car drive on autopilot to Chuck's location. Mike was completely incapacitated, he could simply just leave him there and the commander would surely perish, either by being crushed to death or falling off of the ledge. He would never be a thorn in Chuck's side ever again, and Kane's army would be pretty much emasculated without Mike.

It was awfully tempting, but…

"Why do I have to be a nice guy, why couldn't I be cold-blooded and ruthless?" Chuck muttered as he threw Mike over his shoulders and behind his neck in a firemans-carry, and whisked the unconscious soldier off into safety, where Blonde Thunder would soon drive up to.

_To be continued..._


	7. Hanging Out

"You know you're crazy right," Dutch said to his leader, looking over to the wall at Chuck's latest 'brilliant idea' "you're literally the maddest mad-man I've ever known."

"Don't roast me dude, I didn't know what else to do with him." Chuck retorted, arms crossed.

Currently Mike Chilton's was hanging a few feet from the ground by his wrists, which were cuffed to the wall by bright red hard-light cuffs. Having saved Mike last night during the Cabler siege, Chuck opted to bring the unconscious military authority back to HQ and hold him prisoner in one of the back rooms.

"You could have dumped him a ditch!" Dutch exclaimed.

"Or an ocean with lots of sharks or something." Texas suggested, the short man wasn't in his usual racing outfit, he was just in sweatpants and a white tank top with no hat.

Julie was currently in Deluxe, where she would stay as long as Mike was being held prisoner. Since Mike knew Julie in Deluxe but didn't know she was a Burner, it was really best he not find out anytime soon.

"What do you even hope to accomplish by holding him hostage?" The mechanic asked a valid question.

"Now, you might think I'm crazy for thinking this…" Chuck started off slowly "…But I'm thinking we convince Mike to join the Burners."

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" Dutch pretty much exploded, R.O.T.H was chirping in agreement at Chuck's suggestion. "You want to attempt to get Kane's ARMY COMMANDER to hear us out?"

"Oh come on, think about it; none of us have military training or experience like Mike does. And, he's Kane's right hand man, if we have Mike that'd be a huge blow to Kane." Chuck defended his idea.

Texas spoke "This is because you want to fuck him isn't it?"

"…I don't want to-"

"Dude, don't stick your dick into evil!" Texas said in a raised voice, exasperated beyond his usual limit "DO. NOT. STICK. YOUR. DICK. INTO. EVIL!"

"I'm not interested in the prisoner okay! I'm not going to stick anything into evil!" Chuck was blushing at this point at Texas's lewd statement "Look, we'll see how it goes okay? Just trust me on this."

"You dragged us to D&D night last time we trusted you." Dutch said with arms crossed and rolling his eyes along the comment, Chuck smiled sheepishly at the memory of the time he brought the other Burners with him to Ruby's house to play Dungeons and Dragons, which he did every saturday night, although it would technically count as a 'DD&D' since it'd be a drunk Dungeons and Dragons night too.

They all turned as the prisoner started to stir, there was a halo of bandages around his head courtesy of Jacob, who treated his head injury. "Urgh…." Mike's eyes slowly started to blink open.

"Morning sunshine," Chuck greeted, mockingly sounding sweet, the commander's eyes sprang open wide when he gathered where he was, and looked up to see his hands were completely restrained "did you sleep well?"

Mike kicked at him. He failed of course. "What is this?"

"I brought you over to meet the folks." Chuck teased, the other two Burners almost facepalmed at their leaders flirting with the enemy.

* * *

Well, this really bites.

Commander of Kane Co's army, considered to be one of the most brilliant tacticians and a prodigy in his own right.

And he was being held captive by a crazy blonde rebel in a loungeroom.

While Mike hung their briefly praying that he wouldn't have to feel the need to scratch his nose or use the bathroom any time soon, he was alone except for Chuck, who was lying around on a couch and watching some show Mike wasn't familiar with on TV. He was drinking a large mug of what Mike guessed was coffee, it was bright blue and had font on it that read 'World's Best Rebel Leader (not counting Princess Leia)', the brunet guessed it was supposed to be humorous, but he had no idea who or what 'Princess Leia' was. The Stronghorn driver, Texas was reading some magazine on a reclining chair.

Increasingly, Mike became stir-crazy just hanging there; his whole life he never like holding still, he liked being active.

"You look like you're about to die or something, chill." Chuck said, taking another sip of his coffee. Oh what a nice response from the very person who'd shackled him to a wall and was currently holding him hostage.

Mike scoffed and shook his wrists in the shackles, more out of boredom than anything since he knew there was no way they'd give away.

He wasn't sure what to do in this situation, they took literally everything off of him; his staff, his communicator, everything except his uniform.

And Chuck wasn't much entertainment either; he was used to Chuck doing things like using crazy convenient gadgets or flirting with him or something, but he was just sitting there and doing nothing. Usually he found the flirting a little flustering, but he was so bored he actually missed it a little. He knew the blonde did it only to get a reaction out of him.

Then again… What if the shoe was on the other foot, so to speak?

"You know," Mike said to Chuck, grinning his signature 'Mike Chilton' grin that seemed to be appropriate in any situation "Not that I'm complaining, but usually you wait until at least the second date to bring the chains out."

He saw Chuck almost gag on his coffee and he mentally laughed at this, so the cocky blonde did get reactive from flirting after all. "Someone please gag the prisoner." Chuck said, Texas didn't do anything besides turn the page.

"Third date for that." Said prisoner teased. Chuck got up, mug still in hand, and strode over to Mike. Not one to be intimidating, Mike just smirked down at the blonde. "So did you enjoy tying me up~?" He continued to tease.

"Gross." Texas muttered under his breath, hearing the exchange.

The lead Burner just looked up at him, unamused "…" the other boy continued to smirk down at him. Mike's expression changed to that of surprise when Chuck started to slowly lean his head forward with his lips pursed, aiming right at Mike's.

Was he going to…

A small blush creeped up on the soldiers face as the other got closer and closer, shortening the distance between them, until finally-

"Join the Burners Mike," Chuck said as he abruptly turned around, sipping from his mug nonchalantly. Mike was dumbstruck, and it clearly showed on his face.

Chuck walked back to the couch like nothing.

Okay, maybe he wasn't quite as good at mind games as the rebel leader was. Just a little.

* * *

"You want me to /what/?" Foxy near gasped, looking almost indignant at his proposal.

"We need you to pretend to be Julie for a few days," Chuck repeated "Look, we're holding Chilton hostage but he know's Julie from Deluxe so he obviously can't see her as a Burner. But he know's the driver of Nine Lives is a girl so, yeah."

"You want me to drive that clunky junk heap called a car?" Foxy snorted, nose turned up.

"Foxy please," he rested his hand on hers, she continued to look at the younger unamused and uninterested "it's just for a few days, we probably won't even have any missions."

She still looked uninterested "What's in it for me?" Oh boy, he saw that question coming miles away.

He didn't have much to offer and barter; just because he had a life outside the Burners didn't mean he had a job or anything that gave him a paycheck, so he couldn't pay her "…I'll back off Claire, entirely." It was a risky shot, but, there was a chance and he was going to take it.

Foxy tilted her head thoughtfully, eyes glinting "Will you?" So wait, she did have a crush on Claire? He was just guessing.

Good thing Claire recently turned 18…

"Yes. I will, just do me this solid and I'll back off." He put his hand up in a polite gesture.

Foxy shook his hand.

* * *

"Wait, so not only are we holding Chilton, but Heather's joining us?" Texas asked; all of them including Foxy and Jacob were sitting at the kitchen table at the headquarters.

"It's Foxy." Foxy said, punching his side, and looking at Texas's face it was clear she'd hurt him. Ah, Texas's way with women could really be entertaining.

Chuck sighed "It's temporary, she's just stepping in for Jules while she stays in Deluxe."

Jacob placed a hand on his shoulder gently "You're really sure you can rehabilitate Chilton?" He asked Chuck seriously, he respected the younger man's ideals and tactics, but this one could be potentially fatal.

"Whether or not he's the monster I thought he was is still debatable. If he has a heart, he'll join our side when he see's how much suffering his 'boss' has caused."

Dutch looked away from the screen where he was messaging Tennie, which he was always engrossed in even when working "I hope you're right, man."

'I hope I'm right too'

* * *

The boredom of being completely idle for hours on end was slowly driving Mike crazy "So… who's Princess Leia?" He asked, it was again Texas's and Chucks shift to 'keep watch' over him.

He was perplexed by the look Chuck gave him, eyes wide and mouth agape like the very question personally offended Chuck and everything he stood for. "You better not have just asked me that question." Mike apparently looked clueless enough to prompt an entire rant from Chuck that was way too rushed for Mike to fully understand. He mentioned things like 'Alderaan' and 'the force', whatever those things were. "…Oh wait, you haven't even watched Star Wars have you?"

"…No….?" Mike answered, still really confused.

Chuck ducked into another room and came back with a box set that contained ancient, primitive technology disks Mike believed were called 'DVDs'.

"So you're gonna torture the prisoner too huh?" Texas inquired, not looking up from his magezine.

"Silence ignorant one, I'm merely educating the poor, confused Deluxe cinnamon roll." Chuck popped one of the disks into a plastic box connected to many wires, it was most likely some sort of primitive conduit used to activate the disks. "Alright Mikey, time to introduce you to the Star Wars saga."


	8. Trust Issues

"So… This is a movie about people rebelling against the government?" Mike asked as they were halfway through the second installment of the Star Wars series.

Chuck was still lying on the couch, eating popcorn as they watched the movie "Yes, Mike."

"…And they're the good guys?"

"Yes, Mike." Chuck repeated, almost giggling at the cluelessness of the sheltered Deluxian. In retrospect, it'd make sense why Mike would be so confused about the theme of the movie; he'd lived his whole life having his head filled with pro-government rhetoric and propaganda. Chuck himself had been a little overwhelmed by Motorcity's radically different lifestyle in the beginning.

"What're they doing?" Mike asked, noticing that Dutch, Texas and Jacob were setting up decorations. There was cotton that was supposed to look like cobwebs, and bats made of paper.

Chuck tossed another kernel into his mouth before answering "They're decorating for Halloween, we're going to have a haunted house." He anticipated the confusion that crossed the prisoners face.

"Halloween?"

"It's a holiday where people dress up as monsters or other fictional characters, and go house-to-house asking for candy at night. It's a scare-themed night." Like with anything else about living in Motorcity is explained, Mike looked both bewildered and horrified. In the Deluxian mindset that suggestion was at par with saying that kids went door-to-door asking for oxycontin and razorblades.

"You just… let kids go out at night house-to-house with the intent of scaring them?"

"A the really little ones are supervised, or have older kids with them, most are in groups; all the streets are kept lit. It's all good fun, Mike." He attempted to reassure, the soldier continued to look skeptical. "Although, judging by the decorations, we aren't going to scare anyone." Even the fog machine wasn't anything particularly startling.

"Maybe we could decorate this room and use Chilton as an attraction, he's a menace." Texas suggested as he mixed up the 'witches brew' punch, which was basically just regular punch with some chunks of dry ice thrown in there to make it look like smoke was coming out.

"I don't think of myself as very scary." Mike defended with a small smile; one thing Chuck learned about this guy was that it was practically impossible to get him down. Even in a hostage situation he seemed upbeat and wasn't affected by any insults or threats.

It was kind of cute.

'Don't think he's cute he's Kane's top dog' The logical side of Chuck's brain muttered, and he shook his head in an attempt his get his irrational thoughts out.

"Kane Co military dog out to destroy us and our way of life, in the cadet uniform and all. Kids and their parents would be pretty scared." Texas muttered.

"Okay we're not using the prisoner as a haunted house attraction okay?" Chuck put his hands up defensively to Texas "Besides, we don't need anyone to call the police on us for unlawful imprisonment." Mike looked surprised again, this time at the fact that Motorcity does in fact have laws and law enforcement.

"Speaking of which, shouldn't we feed Señor-Sideburns or something?" Foxy inquired, she was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

"Oh yeah, we haven't done that yet." Chuck held up a finger, in thought

"Uh, well-" Mike began, but Chuck held a hand up at him to interrupt.

"You stay there Mike, I'll be right back." The blonde rebel said, making Mike roll his eyes at the suggestion that he could move away from his current spot even if he wanted to; Chuck went into the kitchen and grabbed a marker and some food before walking back in.

"I'm not eating whatever poisoned thing you try to feed me," Mike stated firmly; Deluxians only ate throat-cubes, but that was because it had all of the nutrition they needed, he knew that the primitive food items that Motorcitizens ate were often unhealthy and caused things like diabetes, cancer and obesity. Chuck didn't respond, just began drawing a series of rings arounds Mike's mouth with the marker.

Texas started to laugh "Dude, seriously?" His leader was drawing a dart board on Mike's face - the 'bullseye' was the Commander's mouth.

"Men." Foxy muttered under her breath with a roll of her eyes, but there was a faint smirk playing on her lips and the racer crossed her arms and watched without further word.

Chuck took several steps back and took his jacket off, but that was so it would be easier to summon his weapon. He slid his hand up his wrist, and his slingshot weapon materialized at the gesture, and he put it on it's 'tangible' setting, which allowed him to fire tangible items instead of energy blasts. In this case, it was food he that was being used as ammo; to be precise, a bread roll from a batch that Jacob had made the other day.

Aiming for the mouth in the center of the rings, he fired.

Mike clamped his mouth shut, so he was hit, but the food item didn't make it into it's intended target, it ended up on the floor. "Oh come onnn Mikey," Chuck mock-pouted, but the other only glared at him without words "Deluxe cubes are nasty, this stuff is actually really good."

Mike just continued to glare at him.

He tried another roll, a doritos chip, a cookie, and even an okra muffin, but it all ended up on the floor.

"Oh come on Mike," Chuck groaned in frustration, wrist dropping "why are you being so difficult?"

"Well that is a pretty insensitive and unprofessional approach to feeding a captive." Foxy pointed from her spot against the wall, but she was smirking in a way that indicated that she was more amused than worried.

Mike spoke up "I'm not letting you poison-"

"Yeah this is getting boring." Texas said as he walked up and shoved a piece of pizza into the commander's mouth whilst he was still flapping his gums. Mike's eyes widened in surprise and he made a half-choking noise. Chuck expected the Deluxian to spit the food out, but to his surprise Mike actually continued to chew and even swallow it.

"Before you ask if you're gonna die or get fat, the answer is no." Chuck assured, grinning teasingly at his rival, who again glared at him annoyed. The brunet turned away when the rebel winked at him. "Aw look at that, big shot there's pouting."

"There are some people only capable of hate after they meet you, Fringe." Foxy sneered and used her nickname for him; although it was teasy rather than mean-spirited, and she spoke with her characteristic mischievous grin.

He put his hand over his chest and looked up as if he were honored "I'm proud of such an accomplishment." He announced dramatically, he swore he saw Mike chuckle under his breath.

* * *

Texas was out trick-or-treating, Dutch was out at the Cablers settlement so 'help out' (in actually he just wanted to see Tennie and hopefully win her dad over), Claire had come down despite Julie being stuck in Deluxe and was currently with Foxy at some other Amazons Halloween party, Jacob was manning the failing Haunted House, and Chuck was left to supervise Mike. He didn't mind though, for the time being he was serenading the other boy with classic Halloween films and treats. Unfortunately, Mike continued to stubbornly refuse the food. A shame really.

"Nice tattoo." Mike complimented flatly with his 'Mike Chilton' smile; the Burner leader looked to his left bicep where the aforementioned tattoo was, which was visible because he wasn't wearing his jacket so he was wearing the blue sleeveless shirt he always wore under it - it was a blue feather topped with a yellow eagles head. It was one of the first things he did to try to grasp his own individuality when escaped Deluxe. It was designed after the 'mascot' of Blonde Thunder, a bald eagle. Bald eagles were currently extinct birds of prey that wasn't as fast as other birds of prey like falcons or hawks, and in lore was associated with the mythological creature the 'thunderbird'. To his knowledge used to be the national bird and animal of the United States of America, so another reason to adopted it was basically to flip the finger to Kane.

"Thanks." Chuck shrugged, drinking a root beer down quickly "Sure you don't want anything? Food, drink, anything?"

"Uncuff me?" Mike suggested innocently, more to make conversation that actually request as he knew there was no way that was happening.

"Sorry there babycakes, can't be done; once I get a man I make them mine forever." Mike at this point was too used to the innuendo and flirting to be affected by it, at least not at a casual setting like this (as casual as being held captive at the hands and headquarters of your sworn enemy could be, at least.). The Burner looked through a box full of CD's for music to play, and pulled out one that was still inside of a plastic case "You kind of look like Murdoc Niccals, you know." Chuck said, as he studied the box art of the case.

"Who?" Mike asked, then Chuck brought the case close to Mike's mouth to show him the cover art for a band called the 'Gorrilaz' for an album titles 'Demon Days', the picture showed an american animation styled drawing of four cartoon men, the one Chuck was pointing to was the one in the top-left corner.

"…My skin isn't green and my eyes aren't yellow." Mike rolled his eyes.

"He could be a cartoonized, palette-swapped, British version of you." Chuck insisted.

"…Was he real or?"

"Naw, he was part of what they call a 'virtual band', it was a rather popular one in the late nineties called Gorrilaz; all of the members were fictional and the music was made by, I think two, three musicians?"

Mike blinked in confusion as he processed this information; he didn't understand 'life as we know it' prior to Detroit Deluxe, only the parts about many homeless and poor people, and all unhealthy lifestyle choices that the previous form of government just let people make like smoking and becoming so alcoholic they were abusive to their loved ones. He always imagined that the culture was self-serving and dog-eat-dog, so little pleasant details like that were unexpected.

A red window suddenly popped up from Chuck's communicator; a distress signal. "What the…" Chuck muttered as he pressed the answer button, and immediately cringed at the screaming from the other end, which forced him to reduce the volume "Texas? What's wrong?" He demanded, concerned; the only response he got was the Stronghorn driver screaming about candy and being eaten alive, before the call died. "Is he O.D'ing on candy again? For fucks sake." The blonde muttered and grabbed his jacket and keys "Gonna have to check on him and make sure he's okay."

"Are you just gonna leave me here?" Mike asked dryly.

"Do you think I'm stupid? The minute you're off of the wall, you'll find a way out of your bonds even if I had you hogtied; because you're Mike Chilton." A flattering but disappointing statement, because Mike really was tired of just hanging there,

The window suddenly broke open, a green pod of some kind fell in.

"Well that's different than the eggs or TP we usually see on Halloween." Chuck muttered as he leant down to pick up the pod and throw it away.

It exploded a gasious substance that he unfortunately breathed in. The gas, being heavier than air, didn't reach Mike who was higher elevation than Chuck.

The sclera of Chuck's eyes were suddenly saturated in pitch-black, and with a gasp, he fell to his knees.

"Chuck?!" Mike inquired in concern - the only gas he could think of that was heavier than air was mustard gas.

Not hearing him very well, Chuck began to pant heavily as everything around him swirled and distorted. His vision of Mike became incredibly skewed to where the Kane Co soldier suddenly descended to the floor, his skin was sickly green and his eyes bright yellow, and his had a snake-like tongue hanging out with an evil expression.

'This is an illusion..' Chuck's last rational thought screamed at him, but he quickly became engulfed into his trepidation, and like any other time he was extremely afraid, tears streamed out of his eyes and down his face, even though he remained silent.

The spectre walked up to the Burner and grasped him by the front of his shirt, hoisting him up to be face to face "You were foolish to assume I could be rehabilitated." It hissed "Why would I ever even consider taking your side? I'd never leave Kane."

He saw the walls were beginning to ooze blood, and the silhouettes of dead bodies, one pile clearly being the bodies of his friends.

The nightmare Mike's hands were soaked in the blood, it spread and stained onto Chuck's shirt and jacket, until it dripped down his own hands. His hands were stained in their blood because he was had made a mistake in thinking Mike could change, trusting the Kane Co soldier was a mistake that would cost his loved ones their lives.

Mike watched in confusion and horror as the usually cocky and collected blonde rebel sat on the floor, hugging his knee's with tears riveting down his face, staring at something in front of him that Mike couldn't see. Whatever was happening to Chuck, it was because of that pod. But what had happened? What was it?

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…." Chuck began stammering, who or what he was talking to or about Mike didn't have the foggiest idea "I miscalculated… I was wrong… I'm sorry.." The despair on his freckled face the other boy couldn't help but sympathize him.

Jacob just then thankfully walked in, seeing the Burners leader crouched down on the ground unstable made him run over to investigate. "Chuck! What's wrong? Did he hurt you?" He looked up accusingly at Mike as he held the blonde close, who didn't seem to even notice the older man's presence and kept muttering that he was sorry for being wrong.

Mike got defensive "I didn't touch him! I'm completely restained! Look at the broke window - someone threw in some plant pod that released gas that Chuck breathed in" even if he wasn't on their side that didn't mean he was some murderous psychopath.

Jacob picked up the withered green pod off the ground "This?"

"Yes."

"…Terra's." Jacob muttered, barely audible, but Mike still heard him.

"Who?" He inquired, all he knew about 'terra' was that it was a term for earth.

"Crazy eco-terrorists, bent on destroying Deluxe." Jacob explained as he gently placed Chuck onto his back and brought his communicated up to try to call Texas, Dutch, and Foxy. Chuck continued to silently twitch and cry, looking legitimately traumatized, watching such a display made the center of Mike's chest twist up with an unknown emotion.

Texas didn't answer, but Dutch's head icon appeared finally appeared "The Terra's are attacking the Cabler settlement!" He said, there was the sound of Tennie's voice in the background.

"For pete's sake." Jacob muttered "Do you know what they're doing?"

"I have no clue, but whatever they're firing at people it's turning them into screaming masses."

"They hit Chuck with one, he's just laying there looking terrified of something."

"Bug… bug…" Chuck suddenly muttered, struggling to break out of whatever spell was binding him.

"Bug?" Dutch inquired.

"Put a tracer bug on one of the Terra's if you can, I'm on my way. I have to try to find Texas first." Jacob commanded, he closed the call down and carefully pulled Chuck to the center of the living room so he wouldn't knock anything down and hurt himself if he thrashed around. He grabbed the keys to Sasquatch and left.

Mike looked down desperately to Chuck - whatever drug was clouding his thoughts it was really potent. He just kept silently crying, just like that time they were dangling off of the cliff-

It hit Mike like a ton of bricks. Fear! That's what made Chuck cry, that's what was currently making him into the paralyzed, crying lump on the floor. "Chuck," Mike said is his commanding voice, the one he used when ordering troops "whatever it is that you're afraid of, you can't let it rule you - you have to face it head on."

For several seconds it didn't seem like Chuck heard his adversary at all.

Then suddenly, Chuck shakily pulled himself onto his feet, his sclera still pitch black; he trudged his way over to the other boy who was completely defenseless, he was reaching up.

'He's going to murder me isn't he.' Mike thought, heart pounding.

The brunet was shocked as Chuck, instead of wringing his hands around his throat, reached up to grab the cuffs, punching in a code that activated the catch-release. Tan wrists were freed of the cuffs and the Kane Co soldier fell onto his feet, looking up to the Burner in surprise.

"G-Go ahead…" Chuck stammered, but he was somewhat regaining composure "prove me right or wrong… Can I trust you?"

Mike's mouth closed into a line, not knowing what he meant, he just stood there before asking "…How do we stop the Terra's?" He didn't side with the Burners, but if the Terra's were bent on destroying his home he needed their help.

Chuck blinked profusely - the tears stopped and the blackness cleared out of his eyes "We'll take my car." He instructed, grabbing Mike's shoulder he dragged him over to Blonde Thunder.

* * *

"You can't protect Deluxe forever!" Kaia shrieked before she revealed a pair of wings under her cloak, using which she soared away.

"…Well," Mike said as he reverted his metal staff back into it's skull module "That was interesting." He turned to Chuck, who nodded in agreement "But at least Deluxe is safe… Why would you want to keep Deluxe safe? Don't you want it destroyed too?"

"Just because I revoked my Deluxe citizenship doesn't mean I hate Deluxians." Chuck retorted, rather defensive at the assumption made by his rival "They're just like you - Deliuxe cinnamon rolls who have no idea what they lost. And if I didn't kill you, why would I want to kill them?"

Before Mike could answer, Chuck turned away towards Blonde Thunder "You're free now Chilton," he said, strained without looking at the others face "Better peace the hell out before I change my mind." Mike lingered for a few silent seconds to stare at the boy who he'd earlier watched silently cry out of terror, the boy who for the past few days had shown him the culture he had in Motorcity without any truly cruel action towards him, despite all the times he'd tried and almost succeeded at arresting him for being a defector.

He turned and ran back to Deluxe without another word.

_To be continued..._


	9. Seeing Red Again

It'd really just been a simple supply run - but of course down in Motorcity where you live fast and live free, nothing could ever really be simple. In their search for an axle for Dutch, they ended up finding a warehouse time capsule full of vintage cars. But then Kane bots and everything became convoluted, one thing lead to another including Julie going up to Deluxe to distract her boss, and now he was fighting an apparently alive and upgraded Red, who was now on Kane's side. Oh and they were fighting on top of a giant flying train called a Deluxitram that was making it's way over to an incinerator.

So lovely how fast something so simple could escalate into something borderline terrifying,

"Your motives really confuse me." Chuck almost yelped as he dodged yet another energy blast being thrown at him by the cyberpunk Kane soldier "I mean, Kane Co. destroys your home and yet you go after me? Kane is literally the guy who ordered they be taken out despite people in them! Seriously what kind of logic do you follow?"

Would you SHUT UP already." Red shouted and punched him in the stomach, Making the blonde stumble back, but luckily not fall.

"Hating me would have been fine - like every other person I've met hates me in some form or another. But join KANE? You're can't even be properly sanctimonious." Chuck spat, he managed to dodge enough punch but he was electrocuted slightly, enough to hurt but not enough to knock him out like he did to Texas. Then again maybe it didn't really affect him because he was a lot more durable than even he'd previously thought, as he'd been literally punched through several layers of Deluxitram polymers onto the roof of it.

Suddenly, a roar of an engine broke through; Red and Chuck looked over to see Stronghorn, and Texas's angry voice could be heard angrily bellowing at Red "Knock me out once, shame on you. Knock me out twice, shame on me. Knock me out three times, I bring my car!" That was actually pretty clever, even for Texas. Stronghorn's engine roared again as it rushed towards Red. The red-clad mercenary punched the ground right below Stronghorn with another plasma infused blow and sent the vehicle up into the air.

Chuck's com then opened, and Dutch's voice and head icon hologram appeared "Chuck! I need you down here to hack into the computer!"

"A little busy here!" The leader grunted back, backing up slightly as Red furiously strode over to him.

"We're being tailed by some kind of mining bots! Those can't hurt us right?"

Mining bots? The type that were used for digging and drilling into the ground for underground resources? "Well probably not unless if they're the kind that have-" the tram suddenly quaked with loud booms "-explosives!" He shut his com down and ran towards Red in a tackle.

The other man simply picked him up and threw him several yards away "Well Chuck, it's been fun…" Red cackled and charged up his gauntlet. Lucky for Chuck, whatever supernatural deity governed the universe must have been on his side that day, because one of the explosives being spewed out by the mining bots fell near Red and detonated, sending him flying off of the tram.

Throwing himself back onto his feet he ran towards Texas, who's car was upside down but luckily the driver was in one piece "Did I get him?" The dark haired man asked as his leader helped him onto his feet.

"It doesn't matter, because I'm sure you'll tell the story like you did." Chuck replied, earning him a friendly (but admittedly painful) punch to the shoulder. Both of them were knocked down by the aftershocks of the explosives. "Come on Texas, we have to get those cars to safety."

* * *

When Mike walked in to see Tooley in front of a red screen, he knew something bad was happening. Kane had out of nowhere called for a personal day (really surprising considering he never took those, and it was on a day that they'd looted several cars), and nothing was more dangerous and derpy than Tooley unsupervised.  
"Tooley what are you doing?" Mike dare asked, dread building up and reaching a peak when he saw a mining bot on the screen, and an obviously peeved-off Kane on a different call screen.

"I took initiative!" Tooley proudly stated, making Mike facepalm and veins bulge out on Kane's forehead.

"Those bots are for MINING you imbecile!" Kane whisper-screamed, judging from the background he must have been at a restaurant, the redhaired ruler sighed heavily and glared through the screen "It says so right in the name! Those aren't the bots to fight Burners."

Mike heard a voice in the background and saw the Kane covered the audio conduit so he could speak to whomever was addressing him without Tooley or Mike hearing him. Still studying the screen the Kane Co commander saw that the Deluxitram was being pelted with explosives from mining bots, and the top of the the tram had the all-too-familiar car Blonde Thunder on it.

So the car burning was about to be sabotaged by the Burners? Why wasn't he surprised.

Course Chuck wouldn't let something even that trivial go…

"Are you mad Mr. Kane?" Tooley asked, sounding childishly ashamed, almost like a kid who'd been caught after accidentally breaking a vase.

The boss facepalmed again. "Chilton, tag along with the new guy, knowing his experience the last time he faced the Burners I don't want him to go it alone and the car burning ending up being postponed."

"Yes, sir; Kane, sir." Commander stood and attention with a solute, then ran out to meet up with Red.

* * *

"You're a lifesaver Julie." Chuck praised his fellow Burner as she named off each defense torrent and enforcer drone that came his way, as he was being madly chased by Red new 'ride' down on the bottom floor of Deluxe. She suddenly excused that she needed to leave, and her call shut down.

After a few more minutes of playing a high-speed car version of tag with Red, dodging torrents, he called up the Burners mechanic "Dutch, how are the cars?" They were unable to hack into the tram, so they were speed upgrading the cars so they could remotely control them and bring them back to Motorcity that way.

"We're going as fast as we can." Dutch explained, and the call shut down. Blonde Thunder swayed with mass as Red's vehicle slammed into the side, he tried pulling away but he realized that his car was held in proximity with Red's ride via some kind of magnetic pull, a drawback of his car being metallic. He zoomed up the front view screen and saw that half a kilometer away there was a raised ledge, one that they'd most definitely crash into.

"Two can play at that game." The blonde driver muttered as he slammed on the gas, speeding up Blonde Thunder to it's highest MPH setting. The two vehicles bolted forward until they both collided into the ledge, sending both flying into the air. In the nick of time Chuck pressed the button that activated the hatch under his seat, letting him fall out of his car before it could hit the ground and take him crashing with it.

He saw not only Red, but Mike come out of Red's monster of a ride, before Chuck could scramble onto his feet the red-clad nameless mercenary grabbed him and lifted him up high by the collar.

Chuck didn't pay attention to this though "Oh hey hotstuff," he said, looking over to Chilton "not that I don't appreciate the gesture, but you know threesomes aren't my thing." Red almost dropped him.

"Ignore him, he's just playing mind-games." Mike explained to his current ally.

"Who's 'sanctimonious' now?" Red sneered in a taunt.

"I don't think you think you know what that word means." The Burners leader deadpanned.

The Red was hit by Stronghorn, something Mike managed to dodge by throwing himself out of the way. "Feel the pain!" Texas excitedly whooped at finally giving Red his just desserts.

"I'll see you around babe!" Chuck called to Mike with a wink, after blowing a kiss the other boys way he ran towards the wreck that was his car.

"…" Mike sat there with a dumb look on his face for a split second before getting up, but by the time he got his metal staff out Chuck was already driving away, Red watching in what the commander could only assume was anger.

_To be continued..._


	10. Liason

“Ah man, this is painful.” Dutch scoffed as he used a special hologram type paint to turn the Burner symbol on Chuck’s jacket sleeve in a Kane Co ‘K’. Currently they were swapping their pallet’s to blend in with Deluxe regulation white and light blue, Chuck’s jacket was now light blue with white trimming, with his shirt and jeans white, and his belt blue. 

“I know I know but it’s the only way we won’t stick out up here.” Chuck admitted with a sigh. They’d attempted to capture Kane by hacking his War Pod, but unfortunately the redheaded megalomaniacs anti-hacking software was too much for Chuck to handle in such short notice, if he’d known about that type of software sooner he’d had been better prepared to override it. Now, they were stuck in Deluxe with all of the buildings back in their charging ports and sealing them off from Motorcity, where only Julie and Texas had made it back.

“You watch the cars, R.O.T.H.” Dutch told his helper bot, patting the top of it, R.O.T.H chirped in agreement and floated up to arch where Whiptail and Blonde Thunder were magnetized to cling to upside-down, and were currently in a stealth mode. With R.O.T.H guarding the cars, Dutch and Chuck wandered off from the site and tried acting as natural as possible, Which wasn’t too hard, considering they’d both grown up in Deluxe.

“Don’t cry Chuck.” Dutch harshly whispered to his leader, knowing he had to tendency to get watery-eyed if he was afraid enough, which it was easy to be with wanted posters of them on every block. 

Offended, Chuck elbowed him “Would you have some faith in me? Geeze… Although those are some really inaccurate posters; they made me look like a blob, an angry blob.” Who made those posters anyways? Someone who specializes in caricatures? Because while it was easy to assume that because Chuck was a hacker he was someone who sat around hiding behind a screen, that was way too much a computer geek stereotype.

Dutch laughed softly at the melodramatic reaction “Whatever - look, I have somewhere to go, I’ll meet up with you later.” The taller Burner walked off somewhere, and Chuck assumed that he was most likely going to visit his family.

Which left Chuck to dodge enforcer drones.

~~~

“2, 3, 4, attention, at ease. 2,3,4, attention, at ease.” Mike commanded the march of the cadets through the blocks.

“God the mundane regimen is almost painful to watch.” Chuck muttered as he watched from a distance; Claire was set to meet him a few blocks away with her pod, so he way lying low.

But watching his boyscout-like rival in action was too amusing to pass up, although it got dull rather quickly. Chuck turned away and watched the block where he was supposed to meet Claire, not noticing that the formation was taking a break and that Mike Chilton was walking his way, although the latter didn’t notice that he was there untill their shoulders bumped.

“Oh I’m sor- Chuck?!”

‘Oh fuck...’ Chuck thought as he looked down at his shocked rival. “O-oh hey Mikey, fancy meeting you here huh?”

Without responding Mike turned back towards where the troops were and was about to call them over and alert to the wanted man, but obviously the Burners leader wouldn’t have that.

“Oh no you don’t.” Chuck stated and silenced Mike in the fastest and most effective method he could think of - by grabbing him by the face and pressing his lips against his. Shut Mike up pretty much instantly, and the Kane Co commander was stilled in shock.

The troop of other soldiers however, did in fact look over. However, do to Mike’s back facing them all they could see was that he was in a rather secluded spot, presumably making out with some blonde person, and it made them figure that their superior officer didn’t want to be interrupted.. With rumors of scandal dispersing between the soldiers like a dandelion on a windy day, the troop walked the opposite direction to give Mike some privacy. After a few moments and noticing that all of the soldiers were gone, Chuck let go go of the other boys face and wiped his sleeve across his mouth nonchalantly, his adversary was completely stupefied, wondering if what just happened really just happened or if he was having a working overtime induced hallucination.

“Don’t think I’m the hit it and quit it type, but I really need to go. See you later, Chilton.” The blonde made him look up by cupping his chin as he made that announcement in an almost gentle tone. 

And then knocked him out by tasing him.

~~~

“I can’t believe you’re doing this, I was only supposed to give you a ride.” Claire huffed after Chuck managed to get Blonde Thunder and Whiptail into her pod. He put his hands up defensively, now that he’d made the agreement with Foxy to stop pining after her he no longer got as incoherent around her he used to be, although admittedly he was still a little weak-kneed in her presence. 

“Relax Claire, I’ll treat your pod like it was Blonde.” He assured, although he processed his own statement and knew her reaction immediately.

“Yeah but doesn’t Blonde get destroyed like every other day.”

“Well it still here isn’t it?” He nervously smiled, then pulled her into the pod so they could fly off, and to Dutch’s location.

~~~

Chuck knocked on the apartment room door, and a large man with an uncanny resemblance to Dutch answered “May we help you?” he asked.

“Are you Mr. Gordy?” Chuck inquired politely, the man nodded “I’m Dutch’s friend, we need to leave right away.” When the older male opened the door for Chuck to come through, the blonde rushed in, stopped to quickly wave at the woman who must have been his mechanics mother, and burst through the door.

“Dutch we need to -” the blonde stopped himself right as ‘leave right away’ was about to come through his lips, he saw that Dutch was standing with a younger teen boy who looked a lot like Dutch, but resembled Dutch’s mother more “am I interrupting something? Who’s this?” Chuck smiled politely and out of courtesy held out his hand to shake the other boy (who’s actually be pretty cute if he was a little older, in Chuck’s opinion). Unfortunately, his gesture was only returned with a glare from the younger boy, who must have been Dutch’s younger brother,

“I know you.” The younger brother growled pretty much, pointing an accusing finger at Chuck, right as red electronic pulses began to make the building shake, and interfered with the palette-swap hologram of Chuck and Dutch’s clothes, making their outfits seem to shift between colour palletes. 

Chuck took steps back away from the younger boy “Did I come at a bad time?” He asked almost nervously - he then noticed the cadet uniform and the Kane posters hanging in the room “...Kind creepy in here.” He muttered under his breath so the other two wouldn’t hear him.

“Chuck the hacker.” The boy hissed, recognizing Chuck almost right away,, then focused on his brother.

“Daar, wait.” Dutch attempted to soothe the younger. 

However, Daar swiped his hand across his older brothers shirt, and saw the yellow Burner symbol on his shirt “You’re a Burner?!”

“Wait, I can explain!” Dutch again tried to console, but to no avail as Daar clicked the communicator that was attached to his risen collar.

“This is Gordy in sector 12, I found the Burners.”

Days like this Chuck was glad he was an only child.

~~~

Everything turned shit side up, really quickly. Sure the situation was shit right from the start, but now it was so much shit that Kane’s equivocation fallacy of Motorcity being a sewer almost had a leg to stand on.

Not only were all of the Deluxe buildings overloading from being plugged in for so long, and the people inside of said buildings were locked inside, but Dutch had been captured and now their fate rested on the shoulders of Dutch’s cute but snot-nosed brother.

“Look, I know it’s hard to accept this - it goes against everything you’ve been taught, everything you think that you know.” Chuck tried reasoning with Daar.

“What do you know?” Darr shot back, although sounding strained.

“I know what it’s like to realize you’re working for the bad guy.” Chuck explained with a sigh “But what you have to realize now, is that I know your brother. And I know he has faith in you to do the right thing.”

~~~

Once again Chuck’s penchant for cliche speeches ended up not only working, but winning over an unlikely ally on the other side. They’d managed to bypass the security grid and force a repair cycle in the buildings, releasing them from their charging ports and giving them means of escape.

“Thanks for the help solider, you’re an honorary double-agent now.” Chuck told Daar - after Dutch had roughly him up and now they were tying him up with wires and putting a ‘courtesy of the Burners’ sign on him.

“No problem.” Daar said with a weak smile, but Chuck pecked his cheek in thanks before waving and walking off back to Blonde Thunder, leaving a dumbstruck and now embaressed Daar.

“...Bro your leader is weird.”

“I know.” Dutch sighed and a shrug “But he’s harmless… For the most part.”

“Is he gay?” Daar asked, quirking his brow best he could despite one of his eyes being swollen and miscolored.

Dutch thought for a moment, good question really. “That’s uh, never been all the way clear.” He admitted before briefly hugging his brother, and escaping into Whiptail, driving away.

Moments later Daar was greeted by a rushing platoon of soldiers, who were horrified at his current state, and they were headed by none other than Mike Chilton.

“Those Burners are animals,” Mike muttered and he hastily tried untangling the cadet from the wires that bound him “you reported them and you got beat up for it. You’re a hero, kid.”

“All in a day's work, sir.” Daar waved off modestly.

“So…” One of the higher ranking soldiers, Jenzen, began “did you gt lucky with the blonde you were with earlier, Mike?”

“WOULD YOU GUYS STOP ASKING ABOUT THE THE BLONDE.” Everyone jumped at the uncharacteristic yelling from Commander Chilton, something they’d usually expect from Kane whilst Mike was usually kind to them.

For a few moments everything was silent, you could hear a pin drop even.

“...Was it a chick or du-”

“YOU’RE GOING INTO THE BRIG FOR INSUBORDINATION.”


	11. Guilty Pleasure

If Mike Chilton was on thing, he was loyal. Rash and reckless at times, but he was loyal to Deluxe and all of it's residents, and loyal to his obligation of protecting them at any cost to himself.

Yet, what was the ever loyal Commander of the Deluxe army doing down in Motorcity?

That was a question he was asking himself as he sat behind the counter at some food joint, nursing a soda and a cheeseburger - two things he'd never had before. Ever since his capture at the hands of the Burners and subsequently being force-fed by Texas, he had a hard time enjoying the food cubes in Deluxe and constantly craved the food in Motorcity.

Somehow, the cravings got so strong he ended up sneaking off through the charging ports. He was wearing the black-and-orange jacket that'd been ditched on him by Chuck several months ago, and was wearing a plain white shirt under it, he had also used hologram tech to make his blue uniform pants to look brown. He felt odd wearing non Deluxe colors, but at least it helped him blend in better with the Motorcitizens. They looked at him and had no idea directed the Kane soldiers and bots that they all feared.

Mike finished off his soda and got a refill of a different type - he liked it a lot actually. He was both surprised and unsurprised that Motorcity used the same currency as Deluxe, because at one point both places had simply been Detroit.

He heard the chair squeak next to him as someone sat down "Fancy meeting you here." He tensed up and turned his head fast to see Chuck there, he reached down into his pocket on impulse to grab the skull module of his staff but the blonde put his hand over his to stop him from doing so. "Relax, we shouldn't fight in a public setting like this."

Mike looked up into maya-blue eyes, still clearly suspicious.

"Your job is to protect Deluxians? My job is to protect them." Chuck explained in a hushed tone, he let go of Mike's hand and gestured at the people also sitting around the burger joint. The taller of the two of course meant that it was his job to protect Motorcitizens. Mike put his hands into his pockets; Chuck was right, even if they had an impending quarrel, that was no excuse to get bystanders involved in it.

"I suppose you want your jacket back?" Mike asked, taking another sip of his soda, he believed it was called root beer. Although he was ready to fight if the situation took that turn, he kept his demeanor relaxed. As if a friendly chat with your mortal enemy was a normal, casual thing.

"You can keep it," Chuck assured with a chuckle as he gave the cashier his order "it was too small for me. Besides, it looks good on you." The brunet quirked his brow behind his bangs; considering his adversary's method of using mind-games to confuse his opponents, it was hard to tell if he was being genuine or just passive-aggressive.

"Should've thrown it in the incinerator." Mike stated simply, but with a small smile.

"Notice you've got the Burner symbol covered by that bandanna - didn't even feel like drawing a K over it huh?"

"Hologram tech isn't tangible, besides we don't exactly have fabric dye up there."

"I know Mikey, I lived up there most of my life."

Silence as Chuck's order came on a tray, and he thanked the worker for it.

"Why… did you leave?" Mike asked awkwardly, swirling his straw in the drink to give his hands something to do.

Chuck unwrapped his burger before answering "It was almost two years ago," he responded "I worked for the programming department for Kane Co. I was, as you can tell, a programmer, and a counter-hacker. Although no matter how much I worked and asked for a promotion, even when my superiors recommended me, I was always refused and kept in the entry level position."

Almost cheekily, Mike inquired "So you're a disgruntled worker?"

"No, let me get to that part won't you?" Chuck scoffed, before continuing "I thought if I could directly impress Kane, I could finally be promoted. So I managed to dig up old building plans that included a series of presumably abandoned buildings, and gave him those plans because I figured he could find a use out of them due to their geographical location. And then demolition was scheduled."

"…So that's why the new guy hates you." It dawned on Mike, he still had missing pieces of that story, and Red wasn't exactly the talkative type. He was more of the brooding and seething in anger type.

"Yeah," The blonde deadpanned, taking a large bite out of his burger "that's why the new guy hates me." His words were muffled because he was talking with his mouth full. Kinda gross, kinda cute. Chuck swallowed up the food before continuing "I went down to the site to see if it could be used for mining, but then I saw people inside of the buildings… I ran back and told Kane to halt the operation or order an evacuation first, and wanna know what he did? He had his right-hand dumb bully Tooley beat the everloving crap out of me." Chuck personally despised Tooley, not only for his lack of intelligence, but also for his blind devotion to Kane; even when he had to know better than anyone the type of the person that the dictator really was.

"…" Mike was a little shocked. Kane wouldn't evacuate a building? Even if it was full of innocent people?

"Anyways," Chuck continued, sounding a little more brisk and flat "despite all the bruises and broken ribs, and swollen eye, I trudged down to Motorcity and evacuated best I could… I had to admit what I had done, and that was how I knew the demolition plans. I know now that you weren't there to lead the expedition, but I can't fully know if you really would have halted the demolition or not."

"I would never hurt innocent people."

"You /say/." Chuck asserted, looking down to the other boy "You /say/ you'd never hurt innocent people. But you're not on the spot with the, are you?"

"You are on the top priority list of wanted criminals and defectors." Mike retorted, rather harshly "If I arrested you and turned you in, I would have job security for life. Can't you see Chuckles? The only reason I'm not attempting to capture you right now is because I don't want the innocent people here caught in the crossfire of that."

The blonde driver paused and went quiet. Slowly he took more bites out of his meal. "Well stated rhetoric, Chilton." He complimented lowly.

Another stretch of silence as they just focused on eating.

"I'm guessing you're just down here for the food, there isn't exactly a lot of scenic routes down here." Chuck finally said; he was already done with his entire meal while Mike still had half of his to go. It was oddly impressive.

"….Honestly, yeah." Mike admitted with a soft but deep chuckle.

"That's a bit of a conflict of interest, isn't it?"

"I've eaten the same thing three times a day for my whole life, up until that crazy guy on your team shoved that… that… uh, greasy bread thing into my mouth."

"That's called pizza Mike, it's really popular as a snack or meal on its own. They usually come in disks that people slice into 8-12 slices." Chuck explained, going into a bit of a tangent "Good for parties."

"I can already feel high blood pressure." The brunet soldier joked lightly.

"Hypertension, the word you're looking for is hypertension." The blonde couldn't help but correct him. It was a mental tick of his when people used incorrect terms or phrases.

"Do you have to be so technical?" Mike asked, rolling his eyes.

"I'm a genius, I have to shove my intellect into people's faces at every available opportunity."

"Aren't you all of the opposite of the blonde stereotype."

Chuck flashed him a grin "I take pride in that."

It was bizarre, they were enemies, antagonists to each other, literally they were the biggest threat to the other. Yes, there were actually having a pleasant chat whilst sitting together for lunch. They'd clashed many times, Mike had made several attempts and almost succeeded in arresting the rebel leader, who in turn had taunted him at each turn and had even held him captive. Where Mike had the advantage in skill, Chuck had intelligence.

They weren't so different from each other - They were formidable all on their own, they were loyal to their allegiances, they sought only to protect. Unfortunately, they were on opposite sides.

It was kind of sad in retrospect, they were on different sides of a civil war but they had no real enmity between them. In another life, they could have been friends.

"My offer from before still stands, Chuckles."

"As does mine, Mikey."

* * *

'Oh my god…'

The thought ran through both of the boy's head as the heavy mental fog cleared. They were lying in the back of Blonde Thunder, staring up at the ceiling of it, clothes disheveled.

"…What the hell did we just do…?" Mike almost whispered in disbelief.

"Sex, intercourse, fucking; whatever you want to call it." Chuck answered, getting technical as a coping mechanism. He was in a similar state of disbelief as Mike was. He recalled that they'd just been sitting and talking, but then the soldier had brought up when Chuck had kissed him; in response the blonde had tried to disregard it as a distraction, but then they began on the topic of Chuck's constantly flirting with him when he didn't usually do it with other opponents.

Jokingly, Chuck had asked the other if the shorter had enjoyed the kiss.

And somehow that ended in them kissing.

And then leaving the restaurant and stumbling into Blonde Thunder.

And then…

Now here they were.

Chuck wasn't sure how to handle this; he was pretty sated, but at the same time he was apprehensive. Despite his flirty behavior around others, he had absolutely no sexual experience; the closest he'd ever gotten was this time he and Ruby had made out during drunk Dungeons and Dragons night, but that was just because they were wasted. It didn't get any farther than making out and was seldom ever mentioned again. However, today, on a sudden whim he had sex for the first time - and not just with anyone, but with Mike Chilton.

Mike. Motherfucking. Chilton. The military leader he was constantly pitted up against and destined to defeat. He was an enemy, a target, an obstacle. And he just slept with him for no logical reason. It was only a quick thing too, from start to finish it couldn't have been longer than fifteen minutes, but the sheer fact they'd actually just done it was enough shock to be mulled over.

Mike turned to him, his brown gaze was much softer than Chuck had seen before "…What do we do now?" Still unsure, the Burner leader just shrugged.

"It's a cliche for people to smoke a cig after trysts." The blonde deadpanned almost, but that was because he was trying to keep his storm of emotions under wraps, but Mike smiled warmly at the small, lame joke, and it caused the other to feel his chest twinge and feel warm.

After lying there in the afterglow and revelation for what must have been half an hour, Chuck finally sat up. They couldn't take back that they'd just had relations. But oddly enough, the blonde didn't want to take it back. Well, he did and didn't at the same time. Emotions didn't follow logic, and his almost always seemed to contradict.

"I should get back…" Mike muttered, pulling his jacket back on.

"I'll drive you up to the outskirts." Chuck offered without thinking, catching himself off guard.

"Are you sure?" Mike asked, hand resting on the others knee.

Lub dub lubdub lubdublubdublubdublubdub went Chuck's heart "Yeah," he assured, briefly considering whether or not he was going crazy "I'm sure."

He wasn't sure anymore.

He was always sure of everything, he always used logic and probability to make educated guesses on outcome and used that knowledge to tactfully make decisions and moves. But now, he was lost, he was unsure - because it wasn't about logic anymore, it was about emotion, something Chuck always avoided.

Mike smiled to him gently, and kissed his cheek "Thanks Chuckles."

If Chuck was the master of mind games, Mike definitely had the advantage in playing with emotions. Because that one simple, but affectionate gesture stirred up way more emotion than the other would usually allow himself.

_To be continued..._


	12. Distracted

"So, where's Chuck?" Claire asked her friend as they sat down at the counter of Antonio's. Nearby, Dutch and Tennie were sitting together at a table being their typical lovey-dovey and technogeek selves that they were when they were with each other. Texas was sitting with some of the Momma's little boy members and whether or not they were arguing with each other or just talking was hard to judge because of how raised their voices were. However, the Burners leader was not present. And, now that she thought about it, Claire hadn't seen Chuck around in a while.

Julie put her smoothie down "He said he was going to scavenge some parts for his car. Which is weird, because Blonde Thunder hasn't been wrecked recently, and this is the fifth time in the past two weeks Chuck left to scavenge for parts. He never comes back with anything."

"How long's he been disappearing?" Claire asked, sitting cross-legged.

"The past two months or so - it's really strange. He's usually kind of a shut-in but all of a sudden it's like he's got a second gang." Although Chuck always had an excuse of some kind; he was going to play Magic the Gathering at Thurman's house, he needed to return a library book, he was going for a drive, he was checking the defense grid around the city, Ruby needed help opening a jar of pickles (which was a pretty poor excuse because Chuck had issues opening jars and usually deferred it to Texas), but these 'errands' always took hours as a time.

"Has he ever taken one of you guys with him?"

"No." Julie replied; that was also odd, because he would often take Dutch or R.O.T.H with him on scavenging trips.

"Huh, " Claire hummed in thought "maybe he's lying." Lying was such an ugly term to apply to Chuck of all people, he was usually such an honest person, unless if he was talking about his feelings, which he pretended didn't exist. But what other explanation could there be? Chuck was most likely hiding something.

"Well, whatever he has going on, it's probably important. If he'd hiding something it'd be for a good reason." Julie shrugged; the Burners leader did everything based on logic, not whims or emotion.

* * *

"Have a nice sleep there?" Mike asked as the blonde woke up from what he remembered had simply been 'resting his eyes'. The two were sitting on a blanket on the ledge of a cliff that overlooked a junk-choked ravine. One of the more scenic areas of Motorcity.

Yawning, Chuck sat up from resting across Mike's chest. "Sort of, it's kinda chilly out here." The blonde said said, his face turning slightly red when the other boy leant over to peck his cheek.

Mike chuckled gently at the change in pigment in the other "I'm not surprised, it's almost five in the afternoon. You've been out for a while." He explained, putting an arm over the Burner. Mike was in his Motorcity disguise, which Chuck really preferred on him over his Deluxe uniform. Much more fitting, in his opinion.

Ever since they'd first had sex, they could no longer stay away from each other; for the past two months they'd sneak behind everyone's back to meet up. At first it was completely physical, but that wore off pretty quickly; making out turned into lingering kisses, they embraced outside of the afterglow, a lot of the touching became out of affection instead of wanton need. Now they found themselves spending more and more time together.

Even when they were apart and went about their daily lives they couldn't shake off the constant thoughts. No amounts of hacking, driving, or nerdcore movies could make Chuck want his sworn enemy any less. When Mike called, he always answered in private, when they arranged a date he almost always came up with an excuse to the Burners or the LARPers to go. It was dishonest and it made him feel terrible but being with Mike felt better. It was like a drug, euphoria silencing his logic and masking the guilt.

In a nutshell, they were dating when they really shouldn't be. Cliche star crossed lovers story really.

"Do you want me to drive you back to the border?" Chuck asked, tracing Mike's chest over his shirt, he was looking slightly up to the other boy as he was still lying on his back.

"Not yet," the Kane Co commander excused, still overlooking the ravine "I'll never understand how Motorcitizens enjoy all the junk." Of course he was referring to all of the metal skeletons of cars and infrastructure lying around. The blonde elbowed him in rebuttal.

"I'll never understand how all of the white, blue, and Kane worship doesn't drive you bat shit." He returned, arms crossed.

"You wear blue." Mike jovially returned, jabbing his arm with a finger playfully. In returned the Burners leader shoved him and wrestled to pin him; it wasn't mean-spirited or aggressive, just playfulness. It was true though, Chuck's jacket, shirt, sneakers, tattoo and even eyes were varying shades of blue if darker shades. Old habits die hard.

The wrestling ended out with Chuck pinned and Mike straddling his waist, and the brunet laughed softly whilst the other just pouted. "You're cute you know." Mike husked, before leaning down and kissing him again.

* * *

"…Chuck? Chuck? You in there man?" A brown hand waving in front of his face brought him back to reality. Chuck blinked to bring himself back to present reality and looked to Dutch, who was holding a blow torch.

"Eer, uhm, what?" Was all the ever-so-brilliant Burner could sputter out. He'd been daydreaming again and didn't even notice his mechanic approaching him.

"I was going ask if Thunder needed a touch up, what's up with you Chuck? You seem spaced there." Dutch explained, looking concerned. His concern was not unfounded, Chuck had no imagination to speak of and usually used that space in his head for facts, figures and data. He was always focused on something, he was one of those genius types who could never stop thinking and always needed to mull over something. Seeing him just sitting there and daydreaming was like seeing Texas reading a Harry Potter book and writing an in-depth character analysis.

"No, I did a maintenance check this morning, Blonde's at the vertex." Chuck excused, seeming quite embarrassed and struggling to regain his more serious and cogent demeaner that he usually fronted.

"Alright Chuck… You sure you're okay? You sick or something?"

"I'm fine I swear. Look, I'm just tired, I'm going to lay down for a bit." And before Dutch could stop him Chuck walked away, his whole face up to his ears bright red and obvious from his pale skin tone, although Dutch noted that for some reason the skin of Chuck's neck didn't redden.

* * *

Julie was observant. Being the secret daughter of Abraham Kane, she'd had observation instilled in her from an early age. Staying hidden whilst gathering all of the information available was what she was best at. Fooling her was not an easy feat.

But Chuck had her stumped.

He was no liar. And he was one of the most loyal people she had ever had the privilege of meeting and working with, he always put his friends in front of himself.

But why was he sneaking around? What was he sneaking around for?

A few days ago after he'd left she'd tried using the team radar on Nine Lives to see where in the city Chuck had gone, but Blonde Thunders blip wasn't appearing, meaning he'd manually shut down his link with the others. The time after that she'd tried bugging his car but after several yards the signal got buggy and then disappeared; of course he'd put up his signal-jamming shield.

She sighed deeply as she sat in the main office of the Kane Company building, Tooley was off in another room beating up some poor schmuck who gave her father news he didn't like. "Hey Jules." she heard from behind her, and knew it was Mike. He was one of the people in Deluxe she legitimately really liked and got along with, even if he was the enemy in her double life.

"Hey Mike," she greeted and turned in her seat to see the military figure standing there with a friendly smile towards her. It seemed Mike became happier for some reason, more light-hearted than the 'stoic no-nonsense soldier' persona he'd built up for himself over his military career. But this change had only come recently, and quite drastically "are you here to give Mr. Kane some reports or?" Sometimes calling her dad Mr. Kane or Kane instead of dad irked her, at least it used to, she was far too used to it by now.

"Naw, I had some down time so I just wanted to chill out for a bit." Mike said, sitting down in another seat, friendly smile still in place. Another odd thing, Mike used to never take down time. Another oddity, his talent aside one of the main reasons Mike had been appointed to Commander at such a young age was because he was such a workaholic who never seemed to need or even want anything resembling a break.

It was a nice change to see him more easy going, but no one changed so drastically without something going on. Mike took off his blue uniform overshirt and draped it over the back of the chair to relax better. "…Is that a hickey on your collarbone?" Julie asked, noticing a dark blobby shape from right under Mike's white shirt, which was almost translucent.

Mike's eyes darted up at her and he cupped his hand over the aforementioned spot "Shit- uh, it's just a bruise Jules. Training spar." H explained, too quickly for the redheaded girl to buy it. Now, sparring bruises she understood, she got them all of the time and as did the other Burners, but the collarbone?

Hm… Now that she thought about it, the skin tone of Mike's neck was very, very slightly lighter than the rest of him. It was so faint the only reason she noticed was because she was looking for that specific thing. She regularly used makeup and knew right off the bat from that observation that his neck must have been coated in cover up. A sign of several hickies.

"If you're seeing someone that's fine Mike, being celibate isn't a requirement." Julie tried to assure, although him being discreet about it wasn't surprising; according to Chuck and all of his hacking and cyber stalking to gather intel, Mike was most likely gay. (Julie crinkled her nose slightly remembering when she'd asked the blonde how he knew that, and responded that there was a couple gigabytes of gay porn on Mike's PC storage.)

"I'm not seeing someone, it's just a dumb bruise.." Mike got defensive, cementing the other Deluxians suspicions. Julie shrugged and didn't press further, the commander had a right to privacy and a personal life, and it did explained why he'd been in such an elevated mood lately. Although she couldn't help but wonder who Mike would be seeing; he was, as said before, a workaholic. The only time he wasn't working when when he was sleeping, so he rarely had interaction outside of other Kane soldiers. Was he dating another Kane soldier? It'd make sense since dating inside of the military was allowed as long as it didn't interfere with duties and there weren't any public displays of affection.

His friend Jenzen maybe? He was a respected soldier and one of Mike's personal friends. No, Jenzen was the type who'd brag about such a thing.

Why the secrecy?

Why the secrecy with Chuck, /and/ Mike?

…Why were two people, rivals none the less, acting differently, around the same time? Two people who had shown pretty obvious interest and tension between them? Was Julie grasping straws when she came to the conclusion that the incidents correlation was no coincidence?

_To be continued..._


	13. Touch the Skyy

"Geeze Chuck must have had some serious rage or something." Dutch said over com to Texas after another minor skirmish with the Kane forces.

"Didn't think the nerd had it in him." Texas responded in agreement. Julie stayed silent at her end.

Even though the skirmish had been minor - Kane forces being past the border, Chuck went all out with figurative guns blazing. He's gone so far as to leave Blonde Thunder and physically fight the Kane soldiers. That was beyond odd, as Chuck never physically fought if he didn't have to, the obvious skills gap between him and the Kane soldiers prevented this. In fact, when the blonde had spotted Mike amongst the soldiers he'd charged for him directly and thrashed the dude with the type of ferocity they'd only seen once, when some punk had slashed Chuck's tires.

Mike had seem so affected by the beating he'd backed off with the other Kane soldiers, Mike, retreated. The man who always had a plan actually retreated. "Probably a fluke." Texas concluded, thinking about it, Dutch reprimanded the other Burner for having so little faith in their leader. Well, the fighting capabilities of said leader at least, which Texas questioned constantly.

"Yeah, a fluke…" Julie surprising agreed with the Stronghorn driver, although she believed there was a reason to the 'fluke'.

* * *

"If you wanted to convince them things hadn't 'changed' between our enemy dynamics, you could have just shot at me and missed you know."

"I know I know."

"I almost thought you were going to kiss me right there and then."

Chuck rolled his eyes "That's what this meeting is for, isn't it?" Not waiting for an answer he pecked the Commanders cheek "Now change won't you?" Mike was still in his standard uniform, which Chuck hated.

"Yeah yeah 'dear'." Mike teased the last word out, earning him a playful punch in the shoulder, he shrugged off his uniform jacket and put on the black and orange one that he was stowing in a messenger bag.

"You look better in color you know." Chuck complimented as Mike altered the rest of his attire.

"I know." The brunet winked 'Although I was under the impression you preferred me in the nude."

The Burner scoffed at that half-heartedly "Not that that's entirely untrue, but I'm not a pervert."

"Bullshit." The longer Mike spent in Motorcity, the more he often he'd drop a swear word. He still wasn't as vulgar as Chuck could get in a mood.

Still, it was pretty hot.

"What's that over there?" Mike asked, noticing what appeared to be a very steep cliff-edge, what had caught his curiosity was all of the warnings graffitied on the many signs around it. Presently he and Chuck were going on a drive around Motorcity.

Chuck looked to the side through the corner of his eye but didn't move his head away from facing ahead "Oh that's the Motorcity Doom Jump."

"…Doom Jump."

"As the name entails, it's suicide trying to drive to the other side." Chuck explained, recalling a story about how a few years ago some poor schmuck had tried and ended up dead "No ones made it, so no one dares to try."

"Couldn't you use an energy blast of some kind to propel yourself?" Mike suggested, the other boy hummed in thought at the thoughtful observation.

"I suppose someone could, the problem is however that no one ignition is strong enough." Chuck explained, turning when the road curved "But enough of the Doom Jump, is there anywhere you want to go today?"

"How about we see those friends of yours, the non-Burners I mean." Mike asked, he was truthfully wondering if they were doing well, especially after the last time he saw them where the two kids were captured by robots.

"The LARPers? Sure." The blonde began driving the direction of the freeway "I was going to go over tonight anyways, it's drunk Magic the Gathering night anyways."

"It's what?" Mike looked at his boyfriend like he'd just grown two heads; yeah he knew what Magic the Gathering was because Chuck had played a few games of it with him (even giving him a black-devotion deck), but, drunk? They drank? Underaged and outside of a holiday? In Deluxe alcohol was strictly illegal except on holidays, and not for anyone under the age of 21, the law was in place to prevent abuse caused by alcoholism.

"Drunk Magic the Gathering," Chuck explained nonchalantly "It's a drinking game, everytime someone uses an artifact card you take a drink. We're probably going to get super wasted tonight because Ruby uses a colourless deck and it's like every other card is an artifact."

"You drink?" The brunet was still quite bug eyed.

"Not really," Chuck shrugged "I'm what they call a 'light-weight' so I usually stop after like three or four shots. And only on Saturdays." Saturday was the day they alternated between Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons every week.

"Shots?"

"A very small cup of alcohol you're supposed to down as fast as possible."

"Why do you down it as fast as possible?"

"That shit burns your throat."

"Then why do it?!" Oh boy, despite all of time he spent in Motorcity Mike was still the Deluxe cinnamon roll that Chuck had pegged him right from the start.

* * *

Minutes later the pair were at Ruby's door, Chuck knocking on the door with his other arm linked with Mike's, they were dragged in right away by the enthusiastic darkslayer.

"Hey you're that Deluxe guy we saw a couple months ago." Sam pointed out once Chuck and Mike were over, of course none of the LARPers were aware that he was more than just a guy from Deluxe, but the Commander of Kanes army. Mike nodded and smiled politely.

"Hope you don't mind I'm Lord Vanquisher's boyfriend." The brunet said, making the others laugh softly as they were well-aware of the Lord of their realm being bisexual (it was pretty obvious from his flirting with guys). Hearing the other refer to himself as his, made Chuck's stomach lurch and flutter. He gently pulled the brunet down to sit on the couch with him, and set both of their decks up. Chuck personally used a blue-devotion deck, his side deck was a black devotion deck but he had it currently leant out to Mike. By now Mike had a basic understanding of the game.

"Hey guys," Chuck said, referring to the LARPers "if you could uh, please don't mention Mike to the Burners okay?"

"Why not?" Thurman asked, his brow raised. They knew Chuck liked having a life outside of the Burners, but they didn't think he'd be secretive about everything he did. It couldn't be because Mike was a Deluxian because Julie and Claire were as well, and it was no secret in Motorcity.

"It's just.." Chuck thought quickly "I don't want them to think I'm dividing my loyalty." Fair enough, it was one thing to have a life outside of his gang, but having a love life whilst also being a leader could be seen as spreading himself too thin. His shoulders were drawn up slightly tensely, partly because he wasn't the best at lying, and partly because of the guilt of actually lying. He relaxed when Mike kissed his cheek reassuringly.

When Ruby got out a few bottles of liquor out, it was Mike's turn to become nervous, his boyfriend wasn't surprised because he was well aware of Deluxe's strict policy on alcoholic beverages. Mike viewed the liquid as a substance that turned any decent person into some abusive monster, unaware that that was only an extreme situation that came from abusing the substance. "You don't have to drink it if you don't want to babe, I wouldn't force you." Chuck assured, rubbing the shorter man's arm. Mike looked up at him and nodded. Chuck himself wasn't intending to drink, as he had to drive Mike back to the border later.

"He doesn't drink?" Ruby asked, her head tipped in confusion; she was so used to seeing other teens excited to try.

"He's a Deluxian, remember? Drinking in Deluxe is only legal during state holidays." Chuck explained, still rubbing Mike's arm.

"You don't want to even try?"

"I'm good…" Mike muttered quietly under his breath, watching as one of the other LARPers mixed a clear liquor with a soda, he deduced it was to make the burning taste that Chuck had earlier described more bearable.

The game started, and Chuck had managed to draw a Plainswalker, and Mike had made two swings before he was beaten by Thurman. As he sat there patiently waiting for the next game, he couldn't help but continually looking to the red solo cups with the alcohol in it. He'd seen the LARPers drink it, and besides become clumsier and slurred speech they didn't seem much different than before. They weren't passed out, or throwing up, or beating anyone like he'd expected.

They seemed relaxed even, kinda dumb, but relaxed.

Tentatively, he grabbed a clean red solo cup and filled it with mostly cola, and began pouring some of the clear liquor in it.

"Not too much," Chuck chided to the side "that's a hundred-proof."

Sadly Mike didn't know what proof meant, and didn't heed the warning as he should.

* * *

"Duuuude we should so go jump the Doom Jump."

"Mike you're drunk."

"Shhh no, really, just start driving towards it from like a huge distance and then you'll make it to the other side."

Chuck rolled his maya-blue eyes, Mike strapped in the passenger seat and rambling drunkenly about 'cool' stuff they 'should totally do'. Mike must have been a daredevil at heart because some of these suggestions were crazy enough to make Chuck cringe.

Not that it exactly took much to make Chuck cringe.

Mike, unlike Chuck, wasn't a light weight, but he'd drank way too much, especially for someone who hadn't built up a tolerance and drank at least half of a solo cup of Skyy at his first go.

"Can I drive?"

"No Mike."

"Can I give you head while you drive?"

"…No. Mike." Chuck's face turned bright red at the suggestion "You're drunk, it'd be illegal." Not to mention Chuck already had way more than enough traffic tickets by now.

Mike pouted at the rejection "Aw such a poor sport, Chuckles."

Chuck sighed, he knew he wouldn't be able to take Mike back to Deluxe if he was this sloshed, anyone would be able to tell he was intoxicated, not just from the way he spoke and his current lack of common sense, but his stumbling also. "Mike, do you think you could do something for me?"

"Did you change your mind about the blowjob?" As if to make the taller boy more embarrassed he traced a teasing circle over his chest, Chuck gently swatted his hand away, his face still flushed.

"No, I need you do come home with me - and no I don't mean for sex wipe that smirk off of your face." The hacker explained, driving up to the Burner HQ, knowing everyone else'd be asleep by now "You're too wasted to go back to Deluxe, you need to stay the night here to sleep it off. You're head's gonna hurt like a bitch tomorrow but you could pass it off as a headache when I take you back to Deluxe."

Mike nodded clumsily, messing with his seat belt, which Chuck put a child safety lock on just for this occasion.

The Burners leader stopped Blonde Thunder and got out first, going to the passenger side from the outside and unstrapping Mike from his seat, dragging him out by putting the others arm over him. He trudged with the extra weight, the brunet clinging to his clothes as his fogged brain could at least rationalize his inability to walk straight.

"Be quiet, okay?" Chuck whispered as he maneuvered them both, silently cursing himself for choosing the farthest room in the place. While Texas could probably sleep through a nuclear war during an earthquake, Dutch was another story; whilst sleeping he was guarded by R.O.T.H who never slept, and the last thing Chuck wanted was to alert the bot.

Once (finally) at Chuck's room, Mike dumped himself onto the bed, so drunk his body felt way heavier than it actually was. Looking at the Commander over his shoulder, Chuck flipped the light on and locked his door - it wasn't unusual for his door to be locked at night anyways, Chuck rarely ever slept at night, usually opting to stay up all night and sleeping at irregular intervals during the day.

"Maaaaan this bed is like, really neat." Mike commented, already snuggling Chuck's pillow, as the blonde amusingly watched from his desk chair.

"Thank you."

"Do you ever sleep in this bed?"

"I don't sleep." At night at least, and usually he didn't actually sleep he just passed out at his desk chair against his will. With Mike distracted by drunken exhaustion, Chuck busied himself by hacking into the Deluxe military report system, where he filed and timed a false report of Mike being ill that morning. He flipped the lights down, as the light of the computer was enough for Chuck.

His companion wasn't passed out yet "Come lay with meee, your bed is way more cozy than your car."

"Mike I'm busy." Wrong thing to say, because before Chuck knew it strong arms wrapped around him from behind and half-dragged, half-carried him back to the bed, making him almost yelp in surprise "Mikey!"

"Sh, it's time to sleep." The Deluxian slurred, arms wrapped around the other boy firmly, try as he might Chuck would not be able to break that lock.

"Mikeyyy." Chuck whisper-pouted "I told you I don't sleep." In response Mike didn't even bother to let go of him, just pulled the blankets up to cover them both, and shifted to where Chuck's head was resting atop his chest.

"Sure you do." And with that, Mike passed out drunk. Leaving Chuck trapped there, and unable to sleep.

Chuck rolled his eyes, staring at the ceiling "If he thinks I'm going to fall asleep he has another thing coming." Yeah, he wasn't going to fall asleep; even if Mike's body was super warm, and his arms were snug, and his breathing pattern was soothing.

Chuck fell asleep in less than a minute.

_To be continued..._


	14. Heterochromia

The morning was spent with Chuck desperately trying to keep his secret boyfriend quiet in his room while said boyfriend suffered from a massive hang-over. Mike had suffered headaches and migraines before, but had never been hung-over. It was almost sad that his first experience drinking involved getting completely sloshed and then waking up hung-over, just barely lucky enough to not be throwing up.

"I'm dying." Mike groaned, his hands gripping his head as if it were an oversized pimple that needed to be popped.

"Oh settle down, you are not." Chuck rolled his eyes "You've survived being hit by cars, being punched through solid polymers, and falling from high elevation. A little hangover won't do you in." In response Mike groaned painfully, in a rather melodramatic fashion. "This is what you get for not pacing yourself like I told you too."

"Fuck you Chuck."

"Not right now." The blonde smirked at his play on words and managed to dodge being smacked.

A knock on the door shut Mike up "Yo, Chuck man we're going on patrol. Feel like joining us?" He heard Dutch from the other side of the door, slightly muffled.

The hacktivist glanced down at Mike, who was still curled up miserably "N-Not today," Chuck began, trying to make himself sound miserable and in pain "I-I drank too much last night and now I'm dying."

He heard the mechanic groan at the response "Dude, you and those nerds…" He heard Dutch mutter, his voice getting softer indicating that he was walking off. Chuck let off a sigh of relief, grabbing a bottle of ibuprofen from his desk. Chuck didn't believe in using medication unless if he had to, believing to relying on it compromised his immune system by making him dependent. But now was a good time to use some.

He shook the bottle and two small tablets fell into his palm "Open up Mike,." he ordered gently, tapping Mike's cheek. A groan sounding close to a whine rumbled from the others throat, but Chuck kept softly tapping his cheek until the other eventually complied and opened his mouth so he could drop the pills in "Don't chew these, just swallow."

Mike made a face as he dryly swallowed the pills "It is so typical of you to make me swallow." The double-meaning must have been intended because Mike smirked despite his shut eyes, and Chucks freckled face flooded with a crimson hue.

"And here people tell me I have a one-track mind." The blonde hacksaur muttered sarcastically, his gangly arms crossed over his chest, he stood up and stripped down to change into a fresh pair of clothes - being held captive by Mike in bed all night he hadn't had a way to change into pajamas last night and had slept in his clothes.

He looked over his shoulder to make sure Mike was okay, or at least less bitchy, and rebooted his computer, he started up his security monitors and saw that the rest of H.Q. was clear thankfully, meaning everyone even Jacob had gone on patrol. Thank the almighty data processor in the sky.

"Come on Mikey, we'll get you some coffee and a bite to eat, then get you out of here." He wrapped his arms around the Commander and practically dragged him out of the bed.

"The painnnn."

"Oh get over it you Deluxe baby, at least you aren't vomiting your guts out." With somewhat of a hassle he managed to drag his boyfriend to the kitchen and make him sit at one of the stools, luckily coffee was already made and there was a bag of bread out. He prepared Mike's coffee - while Chuck preferred drinking his coffee black, and a pot at a time due to his tolerance to the effects of caffeine, Mike liked his coffee with cream and sugar dumped in it and could get wired on two mere cups.

"Thanks, babe." Mike hummed when he was handed a large mug of coffee and a few slices of toast, and Chuck bit the inside of his cheek at the new pet name. The brunet worked slowly at consuming the makeshift breakfast, the hangover making him quite sluggish.

He left him be, he pulled a tarp off of the unnamed green car that the Burners kept as an emergency spare. It was the most versatile, but personally Chuck just didn't prefer it. Whilst Mike was eating, Chuck was just going to check it's part, as it has very rarely been used.

"Dude that car looks awesome." He heard Mike say - his voice sounding wistful rather than whiny like it had been all morning, Chuck whipped his head over to look at his boyfriend, who was staring at the car in amazement as if he had never seen a car before. As if his goal as a Kane Co commander wasn't to destroy all cars left in existence.

"This one?" Chuck tilted his head and looked back to the car - it was green, in excellent condition (due to top notch repairs by Dutch, and rarely being used in the first place) and had a cartoonish caricature of a small dog with big eyes spraypainted on the side. "This is just a spare we use in case of one of our own cars so broken down we can't readily use it."

"It look's really cool." Mike basically repeated what he'd already said before. This was one thing about Mike that both baffled and intrigued Chuck - when he first came down to Motorcity cars and the prospect of driving in one terrified him, it was a fear pill he still struggled to swallow to this day. Mike was the opposite, the dangerous death machines that he'd seen nothing but negative propaganda of his whole life, simply excited him. "Do you ever drive that?"

"Sometimes." He shrugged.

"Is it fast?"

"It's the fastest car actually. It just isn't as good a fit for any of the Burners as our own cars are." Chuck preferred diverse weaponry, and a lightweight frame to accentuate accuracy, even if it came at the sacrifice of speed and power. "I'm not a big fan of the color green anyways."

"I think it looks sleek."

"Maybe I should buy you a green jacket then."

"But I like this one." Mike pouted, pulling the ends of his orange-trimmed jacket closer together.

"Oh I know." Chuck shrugged "If you like the car so much Mike maybe I should drive you home with it."

"Can you!?"

"-I was just kidding. But uh, if you really want to."

Mike stood up briefly before Chuck briskly rushed over and shoved him back to sitting "Finish your breakfast first."

"But Chucccck I wanna ride in the green car."

"Too bad. Finish your toast and coffee."

* * *

By the time the two finally went into the green Burner car, Mike was practically bouncing with anticipation. Seeing this type of hyperactive, almost childish excitement from the other boy made the edges of Chuck's lips pull into a smile unwillingly.

"Buckle up." Chuck told him, not waiting for a response or action he reached over and strapped the buckle for him - this seatbelt was different from the others, as it strapped from both sides with four diagonal straps and was designed in a manner similar to an octopus or squid. Slowly Chuck pulled out of H.Q; when he wasn't on missions he would always adhere to traffic laws and speed limits, simply because due to missions he already had the Motorcity record for most traffic tickets. Most being unpaid because he had no job and the DMV didn't always accept 'community service' as a method of payment.

"Can't we go faster?"

"Mike if I get another traffic ticket Blonde Thunders gonna get repossessed, and believe me when I say I can't afford to pay for it back now." Or ever, because as he viewed it he would probably be an unemployed bum vigilante forever. His boyfriend pouted at that "Just relax as I take you back to the border, okay? At least I agreed to use this car instead of mine."

"Maybe you should trach me how to drive, Chuckles."

"…" Chuck fell silent as they came to a stop light, when the light turned green again he spoke as he started off again "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I like cars." Mike liked cars. Mike Chilton, the commander of Deluxe's military and second only to Abraham Kane himself, the man who hated cars and loved watching their destruction. Something akin to pride, close to arrogance, welled up in Chuck; he'd corrupted his precious Deluxe cinnamon roll into something even Jenzen probably wouldn't be able to recognize.

He knew that the only thing keeping Mike from joining his side was his steadfast loyalty to Deluxe, and to Kane. He just didn't see the cruelty and ruthlessness in Kane that Chuck had experienced first-hand. Remembering the beating he'd received from Tooley after the henchmen had been sicked on him courtesy of the tyrannical leader, Chuck's left eye twitched. His boyfriend didn't know this, but the Burner's leader left eye was actually bionic. A fully functioning near replica of the eye he'd lost because of the horrible beating from Tooley. The only person who knew was Jacob, no one else could tell because of how real it looked, coupled with the fact that Chuck wore a contact over it to hide the metallic-silver coloring of the synthetic iris.

Liking cars was at least a start.

"Sure Mike, I'll teach you how to drive. First lesson's next time we meet up okay?"

"It's a date."

When he dropped the brunet off at the border, he was unaware he was being watched. And followed.

_To be continued..._


	15. Sab-Cat

"If this is about the Duke's tires being slashed, I swear it wasn't me." Chuck insisted even as the Duke of Detroit's henchmen continued dragging him the the lair of the notorious Duke. After dropping Mike off he'd been ambushed by a bunch of the Duke's gangs cars circling around his, and then magnetizing it to where he was forced to the dumps where the Duke lived.

When he was pushed and prodded through the halls, there was a show of lights as the Duke made his characteristic over-the-top entrance "Chucky, how nice of you to visit." The Duke greeted and turned with an ear-to-ear grin.

"Cut the formalities Duke, why did you have your thugs drag me here?" Chuck demanded briskly, hand hovering near his energy saber. The thugs didn't bother to disarm him, which was odd considering that Chuck's strategy of relying on gadgets and trickery was well-known.

"I just wanted to have a civil conversation over business." The older man explained, overly friendly in a clearly insincere fashion. Chuck scowled; he didn't trust the Duke any further than he could throw him, and sure the Duke wasn't heavy-set but Chuck wasn't well-endowed with upper body strength as it was. Not without the booster at least.

"Well make it quick, I don't have all day." Chuck tried to not snap, but his patience was running thin.

Duke walked over, his insincere grin still in place sinisterly "I need to you to go to Amazon territory and steal something for me. It's a chemical called selenium sulphate."

The younger blonde immediately put his hands up defensively in refusal "Woah woah man I don't steal. I'm no criminal like you." He argued.

"What kind of hypocrite are you to call anyone a criminal, Mr. Registered Cyberterrorist, ne number one most wanted in Deluxe, AKA record holder for most traffic violations in Motorcity and known vigilante." The Duke dragged that one out; it was true, even if Chuck was on the side of the greater good he did have an extensive criminal record between the two sides of Detroit.

"Okay I get it geeze." Chuck threw his arms up, not liking the criticism even if it was accurate. The Duke was unfortunately smarter and wittier than he was given credit for.

"Besides," the Duke put a hand on his shoulder, but Chuck slapped his hand off before he could continued and interrupted him.

"Violate my space bubble again you flamboyant hair-dye obsessed fruitcake and see what happens." His threat fell on uncaring ears as the Duke only smirked.

"I knew you'd be reluctant on the idea, so let's trade services."

"Yeah sorry but I don't want service from the red light district." The Duke's henchmen gasped at the implications, and Babs angrily chewed her bubblegum. The Duke himself was unaffected.

"Ooh, sick burn there Chuck. How about I cut to the chase. you steal the selenium sulphate for me, I don't leak to everyone that you're sleeping with the enemy."

"…" …

"And don't try to deny or say I can't prove it, I have pictures of you two together, and explicit video of your car shaking during your private time with Deluxe's top military authority. And I'm well aware neither you nor Mike are underaged, so no you can't send the police after me for possession of child porn." Damn it. May the almighty data processor in the sky, damn the Duke of Detroit to the recycle bin in the underworld.

"Duke if you dare…" Chuck started, but was unable to finish his threat. What could he do? Duke clearly had the upperhand with the blackmail he possessed, and the Blonde Burner was fully aware that should anyone find out about his secret liaisons with Mike not only would his loyalties be questioned, but his ability to be a leader. He'd already been accused by Texas of 'sticking his dick into evil', which he technically had been doing. What if the Burners found out? It wasn't enough that he was having relations with Mike Chilton of all cats, but also that he was deliberately lying to his faces. They'd given him all of their loyalty and yet he was unable to return the same courtesy.

Duke was still grinning at him, it made even a non-violent soul like Chuck knock his lights out "So are we on the same page now? Better get that selenium sulphate, if you don't want your dirty little secret out."

Chuck mentally weigh his options. The Amazons and the Burners were in generally neutral terms, not good enough ones where Foxy would just give him the selenium sulphate, she's most definitely want him to buy it but he couldn't because he had no money as it was. And stealing it would only cause hostility between their two groups, no to mention give him even more unwanted negative attention, it not like he could explain to his friends that he caused bad relations between them and the Amazons just to cover his own ass.

On the same coin, if his relationship with Mike was revealed there was no way his loyalty wouldn't be questions. His friends would feel betrayed by him, and question his ability to be their leader when he couldn't steer clear of contradicting emotional involvements.

And if the news spread to Deluxe, what would happen to Mike? If he had to choose between Chuck and Kane, which would he choose?

Chuck swallowed his poison.

"I refuse."

He wasn't fully prepared for the hellfire and brimstone that would rain down upon him for his refusal to take the Duke's proposition, but he nonetheless braced himself for it.

_To be continued..._


	16. Also Known as a Buster

"Why did I have to like Mike Chilton so much." Chuck cursed to himself as he drove back from the Duke's lair towards the Burners HQ, his radio was blaring, he needed some form of stimulation to get the edge off of his raging thoughts "Why did I have to be attracted to someone who was literally the worst possible choice for me. I liked Claire but she didn't feel the same," he roughly sighed "we could have dated. I'm not a bad guy why couldn't she be at least at little interested?"

Almost as if the universe itself was answering him in divine coincidence, his radio started playing the ancient song 'No Scrubs' by TLC, which almost made him pout.

The Duke wasn't going to release the footage right away, at least Chuck hoped so, the man had to have at least a little time to register the rejection of his 'offer'. And with his impending blackmail, Chuck would have to force his hand and have to tell his team /himself/ of his relationship with the subordinate of Kane, because since they had to find out ultimately preferred if they found out from him rather than the Dukes attempted bribery.

He droven up and stopped at his usual parking space in the garage and paused once he stopped Blonde Thunder. He had to face his team before the Duke's news reached them, but he still found himself frozen. He stood for his own convictions when he refused to steal from the Amazons, but now he had to come clean about lying and conflict of interest.

The blonde's hand was visibly shaking when he opened his car's door and stepped out, walking to the main area. Jacob was behind the counter as usual, Texas was excitedly chatting with Dutch, and Julie seemed to as usual just be both listening to them out of courtesy and keeping to herself.

"Hey Chuck." Dutch greeted his leader, rotating his body in his chair but not getting up, his smile dropped seeing the sullen expression of the other man. "Is something up?"

"…" It was as though a proverbial cat had got his tongue "We need to talk…" he struggled to just keep his voice straight "It's important."

"What's wrong nerd?" The Stronghorn driver asked as he rotated himself and his stool to face him properly. While Texas didn't always seem very bright, for all of his quirks he was in fact very perceptive in his own way, and he could tell something wasn't just up with the blonde Burner, but something was wrong, something was wrong, something was eating at him.

"…" He hated being so chicken shit, but he put his booster on to suffocate his ability to feel fear, and dialed it onto a low setting to where his inhibitions were only a little bit lowered and his sclera turned a faint pink. In the months since he's gotten the booster he's been experimenting with it, and finally found a way to put 'intensity scale' of 1-10 on it so it wouldn't be as addicting and he wouldn't get hit with all of the effects full force at once. He put the setting to 3, a fair amount for the announcement he was about to make. "I've been keeping a secret from you all."

Dutch and Texas looked to each other and Jacob, Julie sat stiff but her eyes dilated before narrowing again, almost suggesting she was bracing herself. Odd, the blonde hacktivist noted.

"You see…" He sighed heavily and dialed the booster to a 4 "I've been seeing someone behind your backs."

"So you've been dating someone..?" Dutch traited off, it was surprising sure because despite his flirtatious ways Chuck had never actually dated before to their knowledge, but it wasn't exactly groundbreaking news.

"Someone actually wants to date you?" Texas's mouth gaped in shock, making Dutch smack his arm a little "Is she cute? Did you get to score?" That time Julie hit him.

"I'm dating Mike Chilton."

Chuck broke it out in an almost exasperated manner, it came out obviously forced.

However, it did take a huge weight off of his chest.

"WHAT?!"

And then there was a whole new mountain on his thoracic cavity. Oh boy

_To be continued..._


	17. Texas Told'Em

"TEXAS TOLD YOU NOT TO STICK YOUR DICK INTO EVIL."

While Dutch, Jacob, R.O.T.H and Julie was stunned into silence, Texas did not miss a beat in yelling that, jumping out of his chair and grabbing Chuck by the collar of his shirt, the intimidating effect was unfortunately not lost by Texas's inferior height.

"I-I-" Chuck stammered, the less bold aspect of his personality started to surface at his anxiety, he was cut off when the Stronghorn driver slammed him against the wall and drew his fist back to punch him. Chuck froze at the remembrance of the beating he'd gotten from Tooley that resulted in his artificial eye.

"Knock it off, Texas!" Julie snapped and grabbed the dark haired man's fist, effectively stopped him as he was grounded slightly out of his angry state. Blinking, he absentmindedly dropped Chuck. The leader was still shaken, but fixed up his jacket anxiously nonetheless.

"Chuck… You're not serious are you?" Dutch asked, looking to his robot companion before back to his programmer leader.

Damn the Duke, damn the duke right to the recycling bin of the netherworlds. "I'm… I'm serious." Chuck confirmed, soft and morose.

"You're… You're DATING Mike Chilton?! Chuck, dude - he's Kane's right hand man!" Dutch near stammered.

"I'm aware, Dutch." Chuck had his arms behind his back, as to silently and unseenly up the level of his fear inhibitor. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep a straight face.

"How… How did this happen?" Julie inquired, there was something else in her voice that Chuck couldn't immediately pick up on.

"I… I… well…" The blond swallowed hard, "He… He sneaks down here because the freedom we have down here intrigues him- well, mostly the food and cars actually. One day a couple of months ago we were both at the same fast food place at the same time, and, we couldn't fight with so many people around and instead had a conversation about loyalties and ideals… and, well…"

"Then you stuck your dick into evil?" Texas broke in when Chuck trailed off.

"…Bluntly, yes. We… Started dating soon after." Chuck admitted, raising the level of his inhibitor to half-strength, the sclera in his natural eye became a rose shade.

"…Dude." Was all Dutch could say, R.O.T.H was chirping something of similar meaning in his robot language.

"Guy's… Guy's I…" Chuck swallowed "I'm sorry, okay… I'm sorry; I knew it was wrong to lie and hide this from you. I know it's wrong to feel this way about someone who's our enemy.. But…"

"You can't continue this relationship with Mike, Chuck." Jacob half-consoled, half-scolded as he approached the younger man and gently touched his arm

Chuck got onto the defensive "You don't understand - Mike's different." He himself wasn't sure why, but he knew deep down Mike was different, he wasn't the same as Kane, the other Kane soldiers or even Dutch's brother. He just… was different. He just didn't see the true corruption behind Kane's execution of his ideals.

"You can't have your loyalties divided like this Chuck." Jacob argued back "Chilton still fights on the behalf of Deluxe, he's a soldier and it's a soldier's job to follow their orders. He's not just any soldier either, his orders come directly from Kane."

Chuck's expression twitched and then faltered, like a drooping leaf. In response Jakob placed a hand on his shoulder, sensing the distress he was beginning to fall into.

"I'm not heartless Chuck, I understand how both love and infatuation feel. And however strong the feelings you are you can't balance the safety of Motorcity on them. Chilton is military official of Kane's army, and he himself will eventually have to choose between you and Deluxe…. Settle this with him now, Chuck, or.. You can 't be a Burner anymore."

His blood spiked with ice - not be a Burner anymore?! That was all he was! He dedicated absolutely everything for the cause of liberating Motorcity, for the cause of liberating people in general from the oppression of Kane. "You can't be serious! Isn't that a bit overkill?"

"It is not overkill, Chuck. If you were dating some random from Deluxe - hell, any /other/ soldier than this wouldn't be a problem. But this is the commander we're talking about… talk to him tonight, tell him he can either choose Deluxe, or choose you."

This was some Disney plot inconvenience bullshit right here "So you're trying to tell me either break up with my boyfriend or I'm booted out?"

"That… may be what's best, Chuck." Dutch drawled out slowly "I mean, this relationship between you and Chilton? It's messed up. But… We can't tell you how to feel, or who to feel for. Just… go find him, tell him to pick. You've been trying to recruit him forever so… I guess now's your chance? We don't want to lose you man."

He kept frowning, he turned his fear inhibitor off, and realized he was actually quite close to tears but he didn't want his team, especially Texas, to see it. "F-Fine… " He stammered "I'll… tell him to meet me at the charging ports, and I'll ask him if he's willing to leave Deluxe…"

"Do you want one of us to go with you?" Julie asked.

"No… It's between me and him."

* * *

His radio really liked being as ironic with his life problems, because the song that came on once he was halfway to the charging ports was "I Hate this Part" by the Pussycat Dolls, a song and band from the time before dystopia. Chuck heavily sighed, he really could drive faster than five miles below the speed limit, but he was too nervous to confront Mike with this.

"You okay nerd?" Texas asked as his head appeared from the back seat.

"Not really- WHAT THE-?!" Chuck swerved and had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting anything. Once parked temporarily, he twisted around to face his unexpected passenger "What are you doing here?!" He demanded and summoned his sling-shot for good measure.

Texas put his hands up defensively in the face up of the other Burners weapon "Hey hey put that thing away!"

"I told you I didn't want to bring anyone with me!"

"I'm here as back-up to make sure he doesn't attack you!"

"Texas I swear to-" Chuck inhaled deeply and pulled back, reminding himself to be the adult here. This wasn't the first time Texas went against his orders after all, so he'd have to take this with a grain of salt, it was too late to take him back. "Fine, but when we get there stay in Blonde Thunder okay? Only come out if you see that I'm in danger, okay? Keep yourself hidden."

"Roger that nerd." And with that Texas ducked back into the junction between the front and back seat.

The song ended as Chuck pulled up to a spot near the charging ports, Mike was already there, mostly in uniform but he was wearing his Burners jacket rather than his uniform top, and his hands were resting in the pockets. When he spotted the approaching blond, he flashed him a smile.

A knot formed in Chuck's throat and his legs grew heavier with each step. "H-Hey Mikey…"

"Hey Chuckles- you alright babe?" He asked, concerned as he noticed his usual confident partner was shaky and seemingly timid.

"I-I, u-u-uh-" Chuck began with a stammer, Mike had to grab his upper arms to keep him from falling over with how shaky he was; Chuck held onto him back and in his current state, instinctively hid his face between the shorter male's neck and shoulder.

Confused but concerned, Mike drew his arms around the blond in return in an attempt to calm him down "Woah… is, something wrong?" He asked, kissing the back of his head.

Why did Mike have to make this harder by being so damn sweet?

"…Promise me to not be mad."

"Excuse me?"

"Promise me!"

"I… I, I promise?" Mike agreed, albeit reluctantly. "Whatever it is… I want you to know, I… I love you."

If you strained hard enough you could hear something akin to glass breaking in the distance. That was Chuck's sanity. Of all times to tell him? Of all damn times?

Chuck looked up from his shoulder slightly "D-Do you mean that?" A hand stroked him back gently, making the whole situation even worse.

"Of course I do." Chuck wasn't exactly the most emotionally developed guy out there, but by the sound of Mike's tone he knew that he meant it.

"…Itoldtheburners."

"Huh?" The brunet inquired, Chuck had spoken too fast for him to quite catch what he had said, only really picking up 'Burners'.

Chuck sucked in a breath, trying to internally stabilize himself as he continued to cling onto the pillar of strength that was Mike Chilton "I told the Burners." He paused, then continued to clear the confusion "About us. I told them about us-" He started to ramble, starting with the incident with the Amazons and the Duke, and finished where they currently were, sans Texas being in the car.

Although Mike was very stiff, he continued to hold him in anyways "They… Know about us?"

"Mike I can't keep doing this…" Chuck admitted, gripping the black fabric of his jacket, he noted Mike's shocked and nearly horrified expression "Like this, I mean. I want to stay with you- because I l-love you too." His voice started to lurch with his body, a sincere if somewhat forced confession he'd been saving for a less tense time "I can't date the right-hand man of Kane, not when he's the very person I've staged this rebellion against. Mike… the only way for us to stay together, is if you join me **(1)**."

There was a long silence, stretched farther than the eye could see.

"Chuck…" The shorter man began, his tone was soft but his hold on the other was growing limp, a bad sign "You know… You know I can't do that." Chuck pulled away from him, his eyes were streaming tears. Well, only his right eye was. His left eye wasn't his real eye.

He wanted to be angry, he wanted to be upset. He wanted to scream at Mike all of Kane's injustices and crimes against humanity. About the Terra's. About Red and the fate of Red's home. About how Kane had not only exiled him for trying to do the morally right thing, but had him beaten and taking his eye away. Back when he had been loyal to Deluxe and Kane, just like Mike.

He wanted so badly to be enraged.

But all he felt was mutual sorrow when his maya-blue eyes met Mike's dark brown ones.

Of course he should have seen this coming. They had talked about this at the fast food restaurant all of those months ago, when their forbidden liason's began. They were both loyal. Loyal to their respective causes, to their people. Mike was loyal to the people of Deluxe, he was a soldier and he served his people first. Chuck was loyal to Motorcity, to his people, and to their liberation.

He swiped his sleeve across his right eye "Well then… I guess this is where it ends."

More silence, Mike stood there still. Chuck knew the other commander wasn't heartless, that this was hurting him as much as it was hurting Chuck. He stayed silent. Up until Chuck turned to leave "Come back with me to Deluxe… I'll put a word in for you."

"You know I can't do that Mike."

* * *

Texas was almost asleep when his leader finally returned - Chuck had opened the door fast and had slammed it closed equally as fast - the Stronghorn driver peered out and saw Chilton had exited through the charging ports. "So he said no? No surprise there nerd, you really know how to pick them." Texas said, as he sat up.

"…" Chuck was silent and had his back turned to him as he sat in the driver's seat, and started up Blonde Thunder.

"You're better off without him anyways-" Texas was surprised when a sob ripped itself away from the other Burner, followed by shaky sniffles, but Chuck refused neither to turn back nor even cover his face with his hands to cover his most likely devastated expression "You, uh, you alright nerd?"

Chuck didn't answer. Not to his question, not when the other man's arms went around his shoulders and drew him in for an awkward bro-hug, not when his sniffles began dying down. Yet he realized, that maybe the painful choice was the right choice… because even though giving up Mike was painful, he could never give up the Burners… A the usually insensitive Texas providing him with comfort in his moment of weakness further vilified his resolve that they were his family. A weird, loud, sometimes dysfunctional, and chaotic family, but they were all he had.

_To be continued..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1: Don't you just love it when the title of something appears in the dialogue.


	18. Fear and Loathing in Vega

"Chuck, you've gotta lay off the alcohol."

"I'll lay off when I'm dead."

Dutch and Tennie watched from the safety of other side of the room as Jacob tried (unsuccessfully) to stop Chuck from drinking himself to the point of blackout for the fifth day in a row. Dutch had gotten his girlfriend caught up on the news she'd missed out on, having not visited in over a month.

"Wowwww…. Just wow, he's been like this for almost a week?" Tennie inquired, watching the usually zany leader of the Burners behave so depressingly.

"Yup." Dutch confirmed with a sad sigh.

"Him and Mike…?" Tennie whispered as so Chuck wouldn't hear her.

"Yeah… I kinda suspected it to be honest… But, I didn't think it would turn out like this. Them break up and turning Chuck into a wreck. I mean, I know no one feels good after getting dumped, but I didn't expect this from Chuck." Dutch admitted.

"Is he still… Functioning?" Tennie asked "As the leader, I mean."

"Well he's kind of taken the metaphorical, and literal, back seat on this. He hasn't even touched Blonde Thunder since what happened, now for patrols he sits in the back seat of Nine Lives because he's too inebriated or hungover to legally drive. Not to mention the other day when we had to rescue Texas from Kane, he didn't even come because he didn't want to be anywhere near Mike." The African American man explained, exasperated. Now, to say he hadn't experienced breakup would be a lie, but he never quite turned into the mess that Chuck currently was. On the same side of a slightly different coin though, unlike the blond burner, Dutch was actually developed emotionally. Chuck had the emotional development of a brick. A brick that flirted with people and used flirtatious antics to mask his actual insecurity and social detachment.

"That's troubling."

"It is." Dutch agreed, crossing his arms. "The only promising thing is that he's still capable of decrypting under the influence, he's getting through the chunk of data we collected the other day."

Tennie looked around and noticed something different "Say, where's Julie?" She asked, double life or not Julie was usually present during the day.

Dutch shrugged with his hands in his pockets "I think she said something about a meeting with her boss."

* * *

For a long time she had seen the mutual attraction between her father's right hand man, and her own leader. And she's noted the obvious signs of them hiding something, and she'd long ago come to the conclusion that they must have been secretly having an affair of some sort.

Boy, oh boy did she sincerely hope that she'd been wrong. While she loved both of them to pieces, there was no logical way of such of relationship working out. They were both stubborn, and by extension very resolute to their respective allegiances, which were at conflict with each other. Chuck believed in Motorcity, and Mike believed in Deluxe. Mike was a high ranking military officer as well, he couldn't do the same double-life thing she was doing, not without being recognized. The only reason that she could get away with it like she could was because there was only a small pocket of people that even /knew/ that she was the daughter of Abraham Kane. Even Mike didn't know.

She hadn't seen Mike following the wake of him and Chuck splitting, but according to Jenzen he'd been burying himself into work to the point of neglecting eating and sleeping; she didn't need to guess that he wasn't doing well. Mike buried himself into his work normally, but in the past few months had actually seemed to relax a bit (and now the reason why was apparent.) Now that his source of unwinding and freedom from his commander persona -Motorcity, and Chuck by extension- was gone, Mike coped by overdoing the very thing he sought refuge from.

Those two she knew for a fact were by no means stupid, really they were in her top tier of most intelligent men that she knew. However, the most ludicrous thing, the thing that made her want to pull out her own hair, was that they thought they could just pull a forbidden romance like that and be fine.

Her thoughts, but not her sprint down the hall, were interrupted by the familiar dopey voice of Tooley "Hiya Julie!" He greeted as she quickly passed him in the hallway, in a fast pace to get to her destination "Aren't you supposed to be at the-"

"Can't stop!" She cut him off as she rushed off into the briefing room, catching her breath and looking to the ground as the metal door shut behind her "I'm so sorry I'm-" she paused when a rather impatient-looking red hologram of her father popped up, rather than the man himself.

"Late." He finished for her in a slightly scolding tone, his hologram turned and phased ahead in the briefing room, to in front of the window.

She put on a mildly amused expression as she strode forward to the hologram "If I'd known we could have done it over comm screens I wouldn't have been late."

"What we're doing here is important." Her dad said, his hologram back still turned to here.

"I know, I know." She sat down at the lone chair in front of the window.

He slowly turned around "If I can't trust you to take these sessions seriously, how can I trust you to run this company when I'm gone?" He scolded, a rhetorical question really. He had his arms elbows bent for emphasis.

"Run it?" She echoed "Only like three people know I'm your daughter. I'm sure the employee's would just love taking orders from some random intern." Julie told him sarcastically, but seriously. Her dark gaze swept to the ground.

"If more people knew you'd become a target!" Kane repeated the mantra she'd be raised on, the one rule she was always to follow above all else. Something she couldn't even tell the Burners, less she be accused of conflict of interest just like Chuck had. "I keep your secret safe to keep you safe," his tone became more gentle, the tone he had reserved just for her "everything I do if for you." But there was something else in his tone, not just the tone of a father speaking to his daughter. Something that sounded almost… Distraught.

"Dad, what's going on?" She asked.

He looked away from her as he crossed his arms again "I had to leave the office for a few days, for, business." His pause was questionable to her.

"Days?" She pressed.

"And it would help me to know, that if something should happen to me-"

"/Nothing/ is going to happen to you." She interjected. She disagreed with her dad politically, especially when it came to his views on Motorcity, but he was still her dad, and she loved him, and would never wish harm on him no matter who from.

"But if it does!" He looked right at her sternly, then sighed to soften his tone again "It'd be comfort, to know that I'm leaving Deluxe in good hands."

Julie stood up and looked up at him with a concerned gaze "Dad…" She trailed off, wishing he was actually there instead of just a holographic projection, so she could put a hand on his arm for comfort, as she did so often growing up. He sighed again, and his hologram phased out as he 'hung up' on her. "…Talk to me…" She sat back down and swiveled on the chair, and seemingly as soon as she did a comm screen call from Claire opened up.

Claire looked to be freaking out over something "Hey Jules! Foxy just called! Have you seen what just happened in Motorcity?! Some new guy just took on a whole fleet of your dad's robots, and an ultra gollum; by himself!"

Surprised, and curious of the claim, Julie pulled up a restricted files access screen.

* * *

Chuck groggily woke up to find himself lying on a stretched out cot, with a blanket over him, a wet hand towel on his forehead, and most importantly an IV line of 1000 ml of normal saline connected to his arm. Not to mention the less than pleased face of Jacob, who was sitting in a chair right next to the cot, watching over him.

"W-What's going on?" The blond asked as he struggled to sit up, he wasn't badly hung over like he usually would be, but he was still sore and his head had a dull ache to it. The increase of volume provided by the IV served to stave off the worse of a hangover. He weakly looked around and saw his blue jacket on lying on the nearby workbench, so his arm could be open for the IV tubing.

"We need to talk," Jacob said, in a tone Chuck immediately recognized as the 'lecture' tone "all of this drinking and moping, it's not doing you any good. I get your heart is broken, but wallowing in your own sorrow isn't going to help anyone."

Chuck chewed on his lip. He knew he was making an ass of himself, by drowning his sorrows in cheap moonshine from the Mama's Boys gang rather than leads the Burners properly like he should had "I-I… It's just…" He looked to his hands, which he folded onto his lap "It isn't just the break up with Mike, okay? It's… I felt like I let everyone down."

"How so?"

"By literally sleeping with the enemy." He almost huffed "I mean, I've got to be a real disappointment to the you guys - I'm supposed to be the strong leader here, supposed to protect my team, but I can't even stand up to the charms of a cinnamon roll in cowboy boots." He gripped the blanket. He was sad that he had to split with Mike. He really was, but something that upset him even more was when he saw the… the sheer disappointment in his teams face when he told them about his trysts with the Kane Co commander. "Am I even fit to lead if I get torn by a conflict of interest that extreme?"

"Regardless of what happened, you're still the leader, and they still need you." Jacob chastised, more gently than earlier "And even if you've disappointed them, you're not going to prove yourself still capable if you're drinking yourself near death and not using your vehicle."

"I… I get it." Chuck sighed, turning his eyes to the almost empty IV bag of normal saline, with a skinny frame like his he was naturally very vascular and could empty out an IV in little time. When the bag emptied out and all there was was a rapidly draining tube, he turned the knob to stop the flow of fluid.

"There's a new face around these parts," Jacob told him suddenly, piquing Chuck's interest but just barely.

"Oh?" Chuck inquired as he picked up a 500 ml bag of lactated ringers and used it to replace the normal saline.

"A masked man in a car, defeated a fleet of Kane bots and metal gollums. " Jacob explained, then brought up a comm screen that showcased a massive amount of collateral damage around Motorcity, mostly consisting of busted up bots.

Chuck quirked a brow "What could have done this much damage?"

"Dutch gave me some footage, take a look." Jacob switched out the comm screen to a video of a masked figure in the car setting off electronic based attacks in a red steel car.

"You're telling me one guy did all of that?" The skeptism leaked clearly into Chuck's tone. "Who was the driver?"

"That's where it get's strange." The door of the sick bay opened and Julie strode in, Chuck wondered how long she'd been waiting outside of the door "According to Kane Co, he's a spy from an organization called Vega."

Chuck thought of all the company patents and trade deals he'd witnessed while a programmer "I never heard of it." He told the red-head.

Julie pulled up a comm screen from her wrist mount, a table of a map "Vega is an organization based in, get this; Cleveland." She explained, alarmn bells went of in Chuck's head.

"Cleveland?" He echoed, if memory served correctly it used to be a major city in the late state of Ohio. "I heard everything outside of Detroit was a wasteland…" Of course, there was always the possibility that was just propaganda from Kane. Remembering the file he still had to decrypt, Chuck brought up his own wrist-mounted comm screen and got back to work on that with his good hand, while still listening to the female Burners report.

"The real question is, what's Vega doing in Deluxe?" Julie seemed to trail off, her head dipped down a little and a worried look flickered in her eyes, but only for a moment "Kane was acting kinda… different, this morning. He wasn't mad it was almost like he was, he was worried about something."

Chuck hummed at her elaboration on her own question, still trying to unzip the encrypted file "So, you can read his moods now?" He was slightly suspicious, but he quickly waved it off. Julie was a loyal Burner and friend.

"Uh, no, no, what?" She defended nervously then brought up another video of the masked man "Hey, look at this weapon, it was specifically designed to stop Kanebots." The video showed him pulling some kind of cylinder out of the dashboard of his vehicle "What does that tell you?"

"That this guy came here looking for a fight." Chuck deduced, still listening but not directly looking at her as he almost finished decrypting the file and also keeping a side-eye on the emptying IV bag. The lactated ringer's making his mouth taste slightly sweet similar to how normal saline made his mouth taste salty. The file finally decrypted, and as soon as he started reading it his blood chilled and his eyes dialated.

Jacob crossed his arms "That kind of tech wouldn't be easy to build… Or cheap. A man like Kane's got a long list of enemies." The irony of Jacob being one of those men was not lost on Chuck or Julie "Vega could have some sort of score to settle."

Chuck cut off their conversation "Uh, guys, you remember that encrypted file we grabbed yesterday? Well I decrypted it, and you'll want to see this." He inquired in a slight panic as he showed them the decrypted file. It was a threatening red color, and while it looked like a simple cube, in reality it was far more menacing, which was further highlighted by all of the caution, hazard, and beware pop up warning surrounding it.

"Genesis Pod…?" Julie read off the bottom of the file, biting her lip slightly at the sight of a file she had not seen "Any idea what it does?"

"Yeah…" Chuck replied, indignant "It destroys Motorcity."

"It… doesn't look so bad…" Julie offered weakly, although she was just as aware of the possible consequences as her leader was.

"Oh it's bad, it's shieded by pure polydenzium, it's the worse thing Kane's thrown at us yet! This things going to be operational before we know it." He stopped the flow of the now empty bag and half-empty IV tubing and almost angrily ripped the IV line out of his arm. He quickly sat up and put a 2x2 gauze pad over the bleeding intravenous hole in his arm and wrapped coban around it to keep it in place. Groggily, the blonde almost stumbled off the cot to put his jacket on.

As he got up Jacob assisted him and tried to chastise him for rushing like he was, but Chuck didn't care about his health at a time where there was such a huge threat like that looming over them. The sick bay door opened again and Dutch, Texas, R.O.T.H and even Tennie came inside, and Julie quickly briefed them over everything that they had discussed. And another discussion started around them.

"If our weapon's can't scratch it…" Julie started.

"Maybe Vega's can." Dutch finished. "You saw what this guy did to these bots, that kind of weapon would do a lot more than what we got." He turned to Chuck, who was downing a large bottle of water, a refreshing change from the coffee he usually drank pot after another. "Chuck, we should find this guy before Kane does."

Chuck finished the water bottle and wiped his sleeve across his mouth "Not to be crass guys, but _fuck_ _that_." A shocked moment of silence swept across his team.

"Chuck are you still drunk?" Dutch argued "Nothing we have could even dent something like that!"

"Look I don't mean to insult anyone's intelligence here, but we don't know this guy. And every time we think we can ask some unknown but powerful person to help us in the war against Kane, they turn against us. I mean, just look at what happened with Red, or with the Terra's." Chuck argued, more harsh than he meant to be, "We all have enough pattern recognition to not make that mistake a third time. If this guy really is after just Kane, than more power to the resistance. We'll find a different way to disarm the Genesis Pod, but we will not go after this Vega guy." Chuck ordered, grabbing a bottle of aspirin and swallowing down two of them dry.

Chuck was a lot of things, and lot of those things weren't necessarily good. But he was a programmer, and as such was a decent mathematician; pattern recognition was a basic skill of such a thing. Given their track record of what happens when they seek out unknown potential allies, the best thing to do was not to investigate Vega.

"Chuck…" Dutch began.

"Don't, we'll find another way. We always do, are you trying to imply that if this Vega didn't appear we'd just sit here with our thumbs up our orifices?"

"You better drop that pretentious tone if you're going to give us orders like that against popular opinion." Dutch warned him, surprising the other Burners and Tennie.

Chuck paused, then sighed again "… I'm sorry, it's just, we can't blindly put our faith into an unknown entity again. I'm not risking our safety like that again, just… if we put our heads together we'll find a way to destroy the pod just… Just trust me okay? I don't have a good feeling about that guy. We can build our own weapon."

There was some silence, and Dutch kept his arms crossed before he sighed in defeat "Alright man, we won't seek out Vega."

To keep up the comradery, Texas added "What's the big deal about Vega anyways? I could totally take TWO fleets of grunt bots with one hand tied behind my shoe!"

As expected, Dutch rolled his eyes and gave his shorter teammate a look "You mean, your back?"

"Uh okay, my back tied behind my shoe. It doesn't matter, Texas can handle it!" He struck a few action poses with his own sound effects as expected, the display made Texas groan aloud and Chuck smirk a bit.

Ah yes, he could never turn his back on them. Not ever again…

* * *

"I'm going to the Depths." Chuck told Julie as he got his gear ready.

"Why…?" She asked, the Depths was part of the Duke's territory, and Chuck… currently wasn't a fan of the Duke. Not like he ever was, but ever since the stunt the Duke pulled outing him and Mike, only to be bluffing, Chuck really had some beef with him.

"I need to get parts for a weapon against the Genesis Pod, the best hardware is in the Duke's territory but there's a lot in the Depths we haven't even touched upon yet." This was true, the Depths covered a huge part of Motorcity, and had seldom been combed through or looted by anyone. Chuck checked over his vehicle slammed his fist against the hood in frustration (which didn't harm the vehicle because it was very durable, and Chuck wasn't very strong to begin with) "Damnit I told Dutch to fix my radiator this morning."

"You didn't ask him, you drank a bottle of moonshine, said you'd stop drinking when you died and then blacked out." Julie corrected him.

"…I leave a note then." Chuck grumbled and stuck a sticky note on his hood saying the radiator was out of order. "I'll just take the extra then." He said, referring to the green car that no one owned and was only used when one of their own vehicles was out of order for any reason. Chuck probably could replace his own radiator, but he preferred software over hardware and always deferred the more hands on stuff to Dutch. "Do you remember where the keys for it are?"

"Top drawer in the red tool box." She told him, and he went over to it "How about I take you through the Depths? You've been my backseat driver for a the past couple of days anyways." Truthfully, she didn't want Chuck to go alone anyways, she doubted he was as stable as he said he was.

"Dutch and Texas are coming with me, but Julie-" He stopped himself so he could turn to face her "I'm going to need you to stay behind on this one."

"What, why?" She demanded.

"I need you to find out everything you can about this Genesis Pod," he began, but she cut him off.

"I can do it when we get back." She countered, and he looked away briefly before back down at her.

"Julie I need you to not fight me on this one, you saw the kind of firepower Kane's sending, if something happens to us-"

Julie cut him off again "Why does everyone keep saying that?" Chuck, not knowing the context of her statement, briefly wondered who else said that to her, but left it alone.

"Look, if something goes wrong I need to know there's still someone who will fight for Motorcity."

"Chuck, nothing is going to happen!"

"Will you do it?" He placed a hand on her shoulder, and Julie was both angered and softened by the familiarity of the situation. The redheaded teen sighed in defeat.

"Fine."

The blond Burner mustered up a small smile "Thanks, Julie."

* * *

"Chuck, the man, the myth, the… fashion disaster! Yow!" The Duke proclaimed with an arm wrapped around Chuck after stopping the Burners in their tracks in the Depths. It took every ounce of Chuck's self-control to stop himself from turning on his fear inhibitor to a full ten and strangling the man where he posed.

He shoved the Duke's arm off of him "Can I help you with something Duke?" He asked, his voice dripped with venom and noncompliance.

"It's time for you to," The Duke briefly twirled his staff "back off."

"We're just driving." Chuck shot back.

Somehow Duke had appeared lying on the hood of the green car, twirling his baton up into the air. "Just driving yes, and I'm just, handsome." Chuck had to disagree with him at that point "You're going after our mysterious party-crasher and I'm afraid I can't allow that." The blonde assumed he meant Vega.

"The new guy? I don't give a C++ about that guy, we're after equipment Duke. Kane's about to-"

Duke appeared to not be listening to him and cut him off, also getting into his face again "The man is in MY territory, that makes him, and all of his toys, mine."

"Are you also after the key's to his chastity belt?" Chuck muttered to himself sarcastically, elaborating on the Duke's statement in a crass fashion.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing at all."

The Duke's security stepped out his limo, most likely to impose, but Chuck looked back to Dutch and Texas who likewise stepped out of their own cars in a threatening manner, while Chuck simultaneously pressed a button on the green cars keyfob to summon a torrent out of the hood.

"Don't make this a situation, Duke." Chuck warned him, and glared down at him. The Duke glared back in return, before Chuck noticed something behind the older man.

"Get back-!" The Duke shouted but to no avail as Chuck tackled him.

"Watch out!" Chuck shouted as they both tumbled to the floor, a laser beam from a Kanebot blasting at the spot where the Duke had been standing, and hitting his red sunglasses that became displaced from the tussle. Chuck hated the Duke, but he didn't want him vaporized… Not yet, at least. "Burners, move it!" Chuck shouted as he rolled back onto his feet and ran to the green car.

Similarly, Duke ran off to his security force, who weren't nearly as composed now that they were facing danger "Oh, you cowards! Get up! Get up and run!" As he ran to his own vehicle, he grabbed the back of the collar of one of his cowering men and dragged him with him as he ran, saving him from being blasted, which to Chuck showed just a glimmer of humanity in the Duke.

The green car, Whiptail, and Stronghorn started falling back rapidly "Texas, split them up!" Chuck ordered, and immediately following Texas fired at some of the fleet and drove off in a different direction at a fork in the road. Dutch was firing at the bots, and was getting bumped into by a nervously and likely unskilled driver of the Dukes, who soon after spun out of control.

Chuck felt his heart pounding all the way up to his ears, trying to best to dodge all of the blasts from the Kane bots, he maneuvered himself using the thrusters to get from one column to another, but he kept cursing himself because the green car just didn't have the same maneuverability as blonde thunder had, even if it did have a more diverse weapon system and higher speed.

At one point her overestimated the range of the green car because of his unfamiliarity with it, and ended up not reaching a column completely.

"Motherfucker-" He cursed aloud as he fell down even further into the Depths.

* * *

"Urgh my aching…" Chuck groaned as he came to - he opened his eyes only to find it to be just as dark with his eyes opened as it was closed. He flipped a few switches to turn a few of the car lights back on. He looked around and could only see cables and rusted beams, recollecting his thoughts about what happened before he was out, he realized he was the bottom of the Depths.

He tried to turn his communication system, but unfortunately he was way out of range from any of the other Burners. He turned on his navigation system, but once again lady luck appeared to have metaphorically kicked him in the balls because there was no existing map for the Depths this deep down.

Smacking himself in the forehead, he did the only thing he could think of, something to do for the time being at least; he turned on his distress signal. Since the distress signal was electromagnetic based, and not completely electronic like his communication system, it had a much wider maximum range and efficiency range, and could be picked up by anyone with a radio or car, and even if it didn't reach anybody, it at least gave him a quick comfort while he thought of something else to do to get out of his castaway situation.

Fifteen minutes later, and still no concrete plan, headlights appeared. For a moment he was elated to be saved, but his heart dropped when he saw it was a lone limo, and the Duke, who had produced another pair of red shades, and for some reason was still wearing them even in the depths of the Depths.

"Oh for fucks sake why couldn't I have just died." Chuck muttered to himself as he stepped out of his vehicle.

"That's a mighty fine lady you've got there," The Duke said with a wide, mischievous grin, admiring the green car Chuck was using. Chuck didn't answer, and just silently questioned the Duke's ulterior motives. "Need a hand?"

"You want to help me?" Chuck inquired, then glanced back at the single limo. No one else was there, besides his personal robot assistant, Cyborg Dan.

"You want to help me all of sudden, what's the catch?" Chuck asked, but before he could allow the Duke to answer he reared up to his full height and got into the Duke's face "Especially after that bluff you pulled, threatening to out me like that. I have half a mind to blast you where you stand." Chuck had to admit, the older man was ballsy, to come down here and face him after what had happened, especially since this situation had a lack of witnesses besides the robot.

"Water under the bridge, my boy." The Duke laughed and Chuck continued to glare "As much you annoy me with your lack of finesse, and lack of taste in men-" He grabbed Chuck's arm lightly when he saw him reaching for his saber, an unspoken warning and plea at the same time "But I like you, just a little; you're like the rebellious son I never had." (1)

"Dude you're only like ten years older than me."

"Nevertheless, we both need something; you need to get out of here, and I need someone to come with me while I confront our mysterious guest. Now, shall we get a move on?"

"We?" Chuck said skeptically, and the Duke put an arm around him again. And the younger blond really wished the Duke had more of a sense of personal space.

"Between you and I, my men leave something to be desired when it comes to… security." With that the Burner's leader had to agree, remembering how the Duke's security had only cowered in the face of Kanebots, but this statement also made him to another conclusion as well.

The blond burner couldn't stop a smirk from appearing "Duke, are you scared?" With that the Duke finally pulled away, a did a twirl.

"My boy, I'm not scared; I'm, an entertainer! Yow!" He then moonwalked backwards.

"That doesn't really have anything to do with our current situation." Chuck mumbled, ironically not entertained by the flamboyant man's antics.

"In the end we both want something."

"I told you before I'm not interested in the new guy. Besides, how would you know where he is?" The younger of the two men inquired, and Cyborg Dan started to walk up to them.

"No one get's in or out of my territory without me knowing. No one." He got into his face again, then turned to his robot "Cyborg Dan, if you would be so kind."

"With pleasure." Cyborg Dan said in its robot voice, then showcased a brief video of Vega's fleeing vehicle up some kind of slope.

"We'll find him faster if we work together."

"Duke, for the last time, I don't care about this guy. I just want to get out of the depths." He exclaimed, exasperated. Why was the Duke being so pushy on the Vega issue? It was suspicious as hell for one thing, and uncharacteristic for another.

The Duke was now sitting on the ground criss-cross for some reason "Well you need to get out of here, and I need someone to help me find him. I the end we both want something, and we'll find him faster if we work together. Don't want someone else finding him first now do we. Then no one get's his toys."

The driver almost wanted to smack Duke upside the head, and also wanted to repeat that he didn't care about Vega or his possible equipment, but pattern recognition told him that it would probably again go in one ear and tumble right out of the other "And what happens when we find him?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. What do you say? We don't have to fight all the time." Under normal circumstances, Chuck would leave. But doing so he would risk getting stuck in the Depths for maybe even days, and time was an especially important resource right now with the threat of the Genesis Pod.

"…Make sure you can keep up." The blonde grumbled.

"Splendid!" The man and his robot got back into his limo, and turned on the tail lights for Chuck to follow. Chuck got back into the green car and nearly tailgated him out of the Depths.

The moment he was in range of the other Burners communications systems, he called Dutch. The pop-up head of the mechanic showed up, appearing frantic "What happened to you!"

"Took a nasty fall," Chuck responded, keeping his eyes on the tail lights of the Duke's limo "I got lost in the Depths and I was out of range, and didn't have any maps that deep. I sent out a distress signal and the Duke ended up finding me. I… Had to make a deal, he apparently wants my assistance in finding Vega."

"So we're trusting the Duke now?" Texas chimed in as his pop-up head appeared as well.

"No way, which is why I'm keeping him close. This is too important. Besides, this gives me easier access to the junkyard." Chuck replied.

"I don't know man…"

"I don't either." Chuck admitted "I'm suspecting this is a trap, but I really need parts. If I don't call back in like an hour, assume the worst."

"Chuck!" Dutch almost yelled, aggravated at his leader nonchalance at the prospect of being double-crossed..

"I know it sounds bad but this is the only way. You guys hang back in case this /is/ a trap, I'll check in when we get to point B. If something happens to me, I have files left on my computer on a plan for the Genesis Pod."

"You have no idea what's up there." Dutch pointed out.

"Exactly, I'm not leading my whole team into a possible trap. I'll call you if the coast is clear." Chuck replied, his heart once again pounding and blood roaring in his ears.

He could hear something in the background of Dutch's call, the all too familiar sound of a face palm. "Is that all you have to say?" The Whiptail driver retorted.

"Uh, hmm… Oh yeah. Also, if I don't come back, please clear my browser history."

* * *

The Duke lead him to a ridge, which only made him more suspicious. An isolated ridge with just the two of them bearing witness, yeah that wasn't suspicious at all. As they climbed up the foothill of junk, Chuck spied the mysterious Vega's car "Found the car," He told Duke, and already started to back away "okay I helped you find the guy, now, I'm leaving, I'm taking some supplies on my way out."

"Oh but there's no sign of him is there?" The Duke inquired, grabbing his wrist and leaping. The surprising strength of the Duke made them both tumble down the ridge of junk into the crater where the car was.

"Duke what the hell!" Chuck shouted as they hit the ground no-so-softly. The Duke didn't answer, just got back onto his feet.

Then, he could hear a faint zapping, a familiar and common sound around motorcity, but something about this particular buzzing made his blood turn to sludge. He jumped onto his feet and turned to the sound, instinctively he turned his fear inhibitor all the way up to the ten setting.

"Well, well, well, hello Chuck." Red said, surrounded by Kanebots and his fists alight with menacingly bright red electrical currents "Hope you didn't miss me."

"Not really, I hate when my past flames get clingy." Chuck shouted back and drew up his saber, shoving the Duke away on the off-chance he wasn't double crossing him "Get down!" He sprinted towards Red, and the Kanebots started shooting at him, and he hit the lazers with his saber to break up and absorb the energy through his weapon. When he hit and scattered a few of the bots, Red jumped at him attempting to hit, and Chuck just barely managed to dodge as the faceless man broke apart the car under them with the electrically enhanced fists.

Throwing his fist back far and powering up to what Chuck assumed to be it's limit, Red threw a hard punch at him and Chuck used his saber to protect him. The electrical blunt force caused his weapon to not only fly out of his hand, but also caused it to reduce down to it's baton form, and roll to the Duke's feet. The Duke himself looked dismayed.

The blond burner was jumping around trying to avoid getting shot at "Duke, toss it here!" He shouted to the other Motorcitizen, holding his hand out 'Please for the love of god surprise me in a good way here…' he thought frantically. He saw the Duke pick the baton up agonizingly slow "Duke, toss it to me!" He repeated, and he thanked the data processor in the sky that Red apparently had the aiming skills of a stormtrooper and only managed to hit junk in his immediate vicinity, but not Chuck himself.

His heart sank when the Duke pocketed Chuck's baton, and Kanebots flew from behind him towards Chuck, and the Burner was forced to run. The bots fire not only lasers, but missiles as well, and he war forced to hop, skip and jump around all of the junk.

He found a momentary safe haven under a metal sheet overhang, and looked over at Vega's car, which was without its driver. With the green car parked at the cliff rather than at the ridge, the only option was the strangers car, sprinting he flung himself into the driver's seat, and flipped the way-too-conveniently labeled weapons switches, and the cylinder poked itself out of the car. "Here we go…" He nervously said, and tried to push it down.

It didn't budge, and he realized this was indeed an elaborate ruse. Before he could evacuate the vehicle though, Red jumped from a high vantage point and slammed his charged fists down right on the ground, causing a tremor that pushed up and flipped the car, Chuck was flung out of it and hit the ground, rolling quite a bit.

From the disturbed dust and weapons smoke ominously misting around him, he could see 'Vega' approaching him.

Narrowing his eyes as he weakly lay on his side, knowing this was all a setup, he looked up the the figure in a hood with glowing red eyes, the same figure that began to lowly chuckle, almost maniacally. A very familiar maniacal laughter bubbled up from the man's chest.

Chuck flipped him off.

* * *

As Red punched him once again, Chuck's back was slammed against the wall, and he coughed, trying to compose himself as his mouth filled with blood and his swollen eye tingled sharply. The faceless man chuckled at the suffering of his longtime foe "This is too much fun." He said sadistically.

In spite of his current situation, Chuck grinned back up with him "I gotta agree with you there, I thought the chains were kinky enough, but hey I like it rough too." Angrily, Red tightened his fists and slammed his face with yet another punch. Chuck's vision went black and when he hit the wall this time he slid down to the floor, sapped of his strength. Panting, he looked back up at Red, refusing to give up his mind game "Yeah… Just like that."

The door opened and Kane walked up, Chuck's grin dropped when he saw a sullen Mike trailing not far behind his boss. "What's the matter, lab rat? Not enjoying the view?" Kane mocked, Chuck looked up at him to avoid having to look at his ex-lover behind him.

"If you want me to validate that with a feeble violent response, you've got another thing coming." Chuck almost hissed, staying where he was.

"You never give up do you?" Kane continued to mock, possibly references Chuck current lack of panic and overall confidence that things would be fine in the end "If only had just been a bit more… obedient, I might have given you a life sentence. But since you're so nonconforming, I have no choice but to have you terminated." He started walking away, and the announcement made Mike noticeably uncomfortable.

"Terminated? Really? You already fired me Kane, if you mean kill me at least say executed. We aren't in a kids show." Chuck corrected the overlords phrasing, mostly to attempt to antagonize him. It didn't seem to work. "Even if you get rid of me, you won't win," the Burners leader spat, getting back onto his feet "Motorcity won't stop fighting. With, or without me." Chuck's heroic speech didn't seem to move Kane other than to amuse him.

"Oh but my dear boy, they already have." The red-headed man told him, and on cue video screens appeared showing surveillance footage of Motorcity being overrun by Kane's forces, and Chuck couldn't keep a disheartened look off of his face at the display being presented to him "Look at them, fleeing like rats at the first sign of trouble. Does that look like civic pride to you. The people don't care about Motorcity. No matter how much you like to pretend they do." Overwhelmed, Chuck started sliding back to the ground, his mind racing at the thought of the safety of his team, and of his city "Now just sit back, and watch your city crumble." Dramatically Kane and Red started walking out of the room, leaving Chuck alone.

Alone with Mike at least.

When the doors closed, Chuck looked up to the passive waste of a military commander that he used to be (and admittedly still was) in love with.

He flipped him off too.

_To be continued..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors notes: Well Chuck handled that just a bit differently than Mike didn't he… Well, the more things change the more they stay the same, I guess.  
> \- Fear and loathing in Vega is a reference to 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' Or 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream' a book by by Hunter Thompson. Which was also adapted into a movie in 1998.  
> -Lactated ringers is an electrolyte solution for IV use.  
> -C++ is a programming language  
> (1)When the Duke says Chuck is like the rebellious son he never had, this is actually a reference to an AU called crazy=genius by asktheburnersleaderandprogrammer of tumblr, where Chuck is then adopted son of the Duke, and Mike is the adopted son of Rayon.  
> -Chuck did not want to go after Vega like Mike did in the series because he's less impulsive in his decisions, and in the series original he was against Mike's decision of going after Vega with the Duke. The only way Duke was going to get Chuck to that ridge was basically to strike a deal, and Chuck tried to get away without approaching Vega anyways. And again after what happened with Red and the Terra's, Chuck wasn't going to place blind faith into a seemingly powerful stranger.


	19. If Tomorrow Never Comes

Chuck continued to flip Mike off, not saying a single word.  
The brunet cleared his throat to break up the awkward silence "Can you… please stop flipping me off so we can talk?" He started approaching him. Chuck scoffed, but didn't put his middle finger down.

"Oh? Talk about what? How lovely the weather must be up here? Sports? Or how about how your boss is trying to kill me?" Chuck shakily stood up "And if you've come here for one last booty call, I'm afraid I've got a headache, and a faceache, and an everything ache because Red's been using me as a punching bag for hours." He bit his lip and finally ended his one-fingered salute to the officer. He didn't know if he was weak-kneed because of how many times Red had kicked his knees and shins, or if it was because he was at the mercy of Mike Chilton, he really wanted it to be the former but knowing himself it was probably the latter.

When the brunet was close enough, Chuck tried to punch him, but Mike ducked down slightly and wrapped his arms under his and around his chest, pulling him into a tight hug "I'm so glad you're okay." The military officer told him gently, hugging him for all he was worth and not giving the blond any wiggle room whatsoever "I didn't know about the plan until you were already captured, I thought… I came here as soon as I heard, I didn't want you to get hurt."

"A little late for that isn't it." Chuck narrowed his eyes angrily and thankfully Mike was hugging him so tightly the shorter of the two had no way of looking at his face and seeing his lips quiver and his eyes glisten "Hurt me? Mike Chilton you've got some nerve. You _heard_ Kane, he's going to kill me." He told him harshly.

"No, shhhh, he won't, I won't let that happen." Mike continued to try to comfort him but it didn't seem to work well, and he knew it wouldn't because he knew his ex boyfriend to be too logical to believe emotional appeals, when he looked up at him he paused noticing a detail he hadn't noticed earlier because of the poor lighting "What's wrong with your eye Chuck?" His left eye wasn't the same maya-blue shade as as his right, not only was it swollen almost shut, but the iris was a glistening silver almost… almost metallic.

"I don't have a left eye Mike," Chuck admitted weakly, as he realized his contact lens must have fallen out when Red had given him a black eye. "Your lackey Tooley beat me to near death before I left Deluxe, I lost my eye. I've had a bionic one."

Mike frowned further "Chuck…" He trailed off, tucking some of Chucks hair behind his ear in a further attempt to comfort him. Chuck hated it, he really hated it, but given their history together and his own present unfortunate situation he was melting the Kane Co commanders arms.  
"Save it Mike, you had to see this happen. You wanted Kane to win and if he did win, what did you think would happen, they'd put me in a white and blue jumpsuit and I'd go back to being a law abiding Deluxian? I'm a registered terrorist in Deluxe, and nothing you could do would have saved me from persecution." He wrenched himself out of the commanders embrace "Just… Just leave Mike. I'll probably die but dammit you haven't killed my team. They're good people, and they won't let Motorcity fall… Just, just leave me alone."

"You know I can't do that Chuckles." Mike reminded him and gently held up the others chin, which was more humorous than sweet because of the height difference between them "I still love you." Chuck's heart skipped a beat, but he kept his resolve.

"Yeah well you also love your city… and I love my city… " Chuck responded, once again pulling away from him "Kane's going to destroy my city, Mike."

"He's relocating all of the residents Chuck, no one's going to get hurt."

"Are you blind or just that gullible? If something comes up, Kane's would sacrifice thousands with no remorse. And the seeds of dissent were sown in every Motorcitizen and have blossomed for years. No one will become an obedient Deluxian like you."

Silence roared between them. Mike stood still, now about two feet away from Chuck, whose gaze was turned to the ground.

"What we had…" Chuck began, looking back at him, Mike was surprised to see a defeated look in his eyes. "I loved what we had. I loved you Mike." He admitted, and Mike's heart twisted at them impending 'but' "But we were so stupid to think we could somehow make it work. I couldn't have you and Motorcity. You couldn't have me and Deluxe. That's why we ended, that's why we can't be together. That's why I have no clue what exactly you thought you'd accomplish by seeing me here."

"I… I just want to help you Chuck." Mike surprised Chuck this time by his statement ending off in small whimper. "I don't want you to get hurt. I don't want to hurt you-"

"Don't you get it you dumbass, we're way past that!" Chuck shouted, the suddenness of his raised voice made the brunet take a step back in shock, Chuck composed himself but his face still held a sour look "It's not our fault we love our causes more than we loved each other. But damn it Mike it still hurt-" Mike shut him up by grabbing his face and slamming his lips against his - it was an effective way of shutting him up to because the familiar but sudden action. Chuck's eyes widened, and his body froze in place. For a moment everything seemed to freeze. Slowly, but surely, Chuck's eyes closed and he pressed back.

Old habits died hard. If they ever died at all.

When oxygen became required, Mike pulled away but the deepness of the kiss resulted in a string of saliva between them, further proof of Chuck's weakness for the other. "I'm going to help you…" Mike promised, and held both of Chuck's shackled hands in his own. The Burner's hands were shaking.

"Do you really want to help me?" Chuck asked softly.

"Yes Chuck, I do."

"I need you to save my friends… To save Motorcity."

"Chuck-"

"Mike nothing you do is going to stop my death sentence. Nothing. I don't want to die for nothing. And the Duke was not only willing to sell me out, but sell out all of Motorcity. He'd sell you out if it was convenient for him." Chuck warned him, and Mike realized he was right. While he did want both sides of Detroit to be unified as they should be, there was no telling what would happen if Duke outed him for having Chuck as a lover. "Do you remember the green car?"

"Well yeah-" Before the soldier could finish, the rebel leader reached into his back pocket and gave Mike a set of keys attached to a skull-head keychain.  
"These are the keys to that green car, it's probably still with the Duke. Just… Just do what you have to."

Mike looked to the keys, and he thought long and hard. The Genesis Pod, if it came to full fruition, would destroy Motorcity, all of the residents would become part of Deluxe. And Mike was loyal to Deluxe, it was his home and he was sworn to it's people. However…. He didn't want Motorcity destroyed, it was different from Deluxe, and in comparison it was almost backwards in it's ways. But it had a right to exist, a right Chuck and the Burners have been fighting fiercely for.  
"I will Chuck." Mike agreed, and pecked his lips again quickly "Sit tight okay, everything's going to be fine." Giving him another quick squeeze of a hug, Mike ran out of the room.

"I don't know about that, Mike…" Chuck admitted in a hoarse whisper to himself, wondering if he'd made the right move in trusting Mike.

* * *

Mike walked out of the holding cell and was surprised to see Julie, the intern appeared to be messing with some sort of file, and he was about to question her when he heard his boss's voice "WHAT? The Duke double crossed us AND you let the Burner's get away with their cars?!" He saw Kane was yelling at Tooley, who looked guilty as he usually did when stuff like this happened. Which was all of the time.

"Uhhm," Tooley was scratching his head to think of an excuse "At least we've still got the Burner's leader."

"You idiot!" Kane yelled again, something so common for him to say it must have been an impulse at this point. Mike slowly walked over, he might have to diffuse a situation if one rose, but it was unnecessary as Kane sighed and rubbed his temples "Clearly I'm just going to have to handle this myself. This ends now…" Something about the tone of his voice made Mike's hand shake, and clearly he wasn't the only one, he looked over to Julie and they knew they had to step in.

"Sir!" Mike called, nipping at their leader's heels with Julie as well "Sir, what's going on? Sir, stop." At that, Kane did stop on his way into his pod, and turned to them, albeit appearing annoyed.

"Just listen to us." Julie pleaded "You promised you'd give the Motorcitizens time to evacuate, doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"This isn't a debate." Kane informed both of them sternly, "You want to know what real leadership is? It's making the hard choices," with that, the red haired man yanked Mike's arm, pulling his military commander in with him "You'll learn that one day…" Mike believed he was talking to him… but the way he looked at Julie when he said that, it seemed to insinuate something he had no idea of.  
Julie tried to call them down in vain "You can't do this, just listen-" The door to the pod slammed shut, and they flew off. Mike swallowed hard, and he looked to the dash panel to see that the Genesis Pod was at 30%.

* * *

Chuck had barely gotten a minute to himself when the door opened again, he weakly looked up expecting to see either Red or Mike again, but was surprised to see Julie run in. "Chuck… " She whispered sorrowfully, but clearly in a rush still.

He looked up, covering his left eye with his hand so he wouldn't have to give her a nasty surprise "You shouldn't be here!" He told her, almost in a commanding tone. This didn't appear to phase her, as she immediately turned to the prison access panel, button mashing away no doubt trying to free him.

The fail safe voice of the panel kept repeating "Access Denied" in a monotonous mantra.

"You have to get out of here!" Chuck covered up his left eye with his blood and sweat soaked bangs as he rose onto his feet "If they catch you-"

"Come on…" Julie whispered fiercely to herself and she continued to try and fail to crack the system. Which wasn't going to happen; Kane knew who he was imprisoning, he had imprisoned one of the greatest hackers in Motorcity, he wasn't going to put anything in that access panel besides some of the greatest anti hackware. And Julie was getting frustrated.

Chuck looked to the door, getting as frantic as she was "They're going to be back any second." He informed her, putting more emphasis in his tone

"Good, let them find me!" She retorted.

"Blowing your cover won't help me." He reminded her.

Boiling over, she kicked the wall and turned to him in a huff "Well I don't know what will!" Once the brunt of the frustration was out for him to see, she huffed out a sigh and looked to the side.

He walked over to her "Do you know why I asked you to stay behind the other day?" He inquired, using the full extent of a 'big brother' tone as possible.

The younger Burner was looking to the floor "To watch your back…" She replied softly. "Look where that got you.." His heart panged, he did not want his friend to blame herself for his capture, at all. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He forehead rested against his chest, and this was probably the most physically contact they had received from each other. Neither of them were particularly touchy, and never had been, but the situation was dire.

He looked to the ground as well "I knew that if something happened, you'd be there to pick up the pieces." He told her. Julie was the youngest Burner, she was fifteen when they met and was not even eighteen yet; but he could see in her the qualities of a leader he himself didn't even possess, she was strong but level headed, and if he would leave to Burner's to anyone, it would be her. Touched by his words, Julie looked up at him at first surprised, but then she smiled softly, and he smiled back down at her.

Just then the door opened, and Tooley stepped in. Once the light from the adjacent hallway hit them and made them visible, Tooley called out "Hey! Who's there?" Julie did the only thing that could be done to cover her ass in this situation.

She slapped him so hard he ended up spinning as he fell back to the ground. Damn, for such a small hand she had a hell of a slap.

Julie then ran back to Tooley feigning fear "Julie…?" Tooley inquired, confused to see the intern there.

"I-I don't know what happened." She lied on the spot "I was bring him food, l-like you asked me to."

"I asked you to?" He echoed, confused as usual.

"Yeah," she 'confirmed' and continued her excuse "and then he tried to make a move so I uh, I uh, I hit him!" Oh the deep red five-star on Chuck's pale face really cemented in that story. "Oh, Tooley," she continued to play damsel in distress by 'hiding' into the henchman "I was so scared."

Kane's goon hugged her back, and Chuck's stomach churned at the sight and he could almost feel the ghost of his left eye tear up, remembering how the seemingly infantile man had beaten him almost to death "There, there. Tooley's gotcha." He turned to Chuck with a reprimanding look of disgust "How could you?" He scoffed lowly, and escorted Julie out of the cell.

Chuck was once again left sitting there in the dark. Once the shock finally settled, he groaned aloud "Oh great, now they're going to add pedophile to my criminal record aren't they?"

* * *

About ten minutes or so after the incident with Julie, Chuck was still slumped against the wall but at this point was nearly asleep, when someone else walked into the cell. "Oh come on how many visitors am I going to get today? I was sleeping." He hissed sarcastically.

"Kane wanted to deal with you himself, but," Red said from behind his visor, as he walked up to the blond menacingly and then stopped barely a foot away "I got sick of waiting."

"Yeah, I have that effect on men." Chuck said with his usual mocking grin, but he didn't bother to open his eyes or look up.

Red knelt down, so used to Chuck's remarks by now they didn't phase him as much as they used to "Don't tell me you're tired. I'm just getting started." He chuckled.

"I love a guy who can get it up." Chuck couldn't help but put a double-meaning to his enemy's words. However, this didn't stop him from rushing Red and tackling him. Red reacted immediately by trying to push his off but the Burner responded by weaving an arm over his neck and slinking behind him.

With Chuck literally on his back, Red forced them both backwards against the wall, smashing the Motorcitizen between the wall and his body, but this didn't deter Chuck in the slightly as he continued to apply a chokehold. They'd removed the booster from his wrist.

However, they didn't know he had another booster in his bionic eye.

Red elbowed Chuck hard in the ribs and then used the arm over his neck to quickly snap forward and arm-throw Chuck off of him and toss him back to the ground.

Chuck looked up angrily at Red - the iris of his bionic eye was now flashing red, and his other eye was completely flushed scarlet. While he'd put a fear inhibitor function on the booster that he'd kept on his wrist, the booster in his eye followed the original function of just enhancing physical abilities.

With Chuck on the ground again, Red attempted to stomp him, when Chuck moved out of the way he tried to punch his head but Chuck rushed him again this time with a headbutt and a shove with his shoulder. Now back on his feet, Red started boxing at him, but Chuck guarded his head, neck and torso with his wrists. And then shoved Red away, finally creating some distance between them.

Red stood his ground, looking more annoyed than threatened. Chuck panted, he was having a hard time breathing now for some reason and the never used booster in his eye made his entire face tingle even worse with the amount of facial trauma he'd already sustained. Yet he grinned, and did the universal 'bring it' motion with the left hand.

At the gesture, Red charged his fists with his characteristic bright red electricity, and rushed at him. He threw his first back and threw it forward in a punch, giving Chuck the opening he was looking for. He dodged the punch and got the the side of Red's arm, and grabbed it in both of his, making sure that his hard-light energy shackles wrapped around the electrical gauntlets of Red's fists that were still sparking.

The resulting interaction between the shackles and the gauntlets had the consequence he was hoping for - the electricity of the gauntlets overcharged the shackles, and there was a combustive force that threw Red across the room, and did the same to Chuck; although now the blond was finally free. The blunt force knocked Red out since he hit the back of his head directly, but since Chuck landed on his side he managed to stay conscious. Chuck shakily got up, he was still panting, he still couldn't seem to catch his breath, and he ran out of the holding cell.

And immediately was barraged by blasts from Kane's security bots.

* * *

"I hate my life." Chuck wheezed as he sprinted down the hallway, at this point the only thing keeping him from getting blasted was blind faith. Which actually seemed to work.

Now out of the signal-blocking holding cell, his comm systems resurrected and almost immediately Julie's pop-up call head came out "JUMP OUT OF THE BUILDING!" She commanded.

"Julie I know you want to help, but now's not the time to compassionately take me out of my suffering."

"JUST DO IT!" There was enough of a growl in the inflection of her voice that for a second, he was more afraid of whatever consequence she would impose on him for not listening to her than the thought of death by jumping out of a building, bracing himself he rammed his shoulder into the glass of a window and started ascending hard towards the ground.

"Um, Julie? JULIEEEE!" He shouted, his right eye teared up hard.

Then he was scooped up by her pod.

He hit the ground hard and groaned, his chest felt so tight… Actually, he could only feel one side of his chest rise normally.

"You can never just stay put and wait for a rescue can you, lab rat?" Julie said humorously, and offered her hand to help him up, he shakily took her hand, still wheezing.

"I-If Red wanted to be my lover, he's gotta get with my friends." Chuck couldn't help a reference, although Julie didn't get it. He kept struggling to breath and hastily took his shirt off.

"What are you doing?" Julie asked confused.

"R-Red elbowed me really hard in the chest, and it was aggravated by a blast I'm g-g-getting a tension pneumothorax." He told her, he breath hard and started counting his ribs starting from the center of his collarbone, and stopped his finger under his second rib right above his third rib. "Give me a straw and a knife."

"What are you-"

"Julie please!" He yelled out hoarsely, she scrambled and managed to get him the requested items. He rolled up his shirt and bit down on it. Shutting his eyes hard he sunk the tip of the knife into the intercostal space, and once he heard a hiss he dropped the knife and shove one tip of the straw into the hole. The tension is his chest started to lesson as trapped air escaped and his lung had room to expand, he signed out in relief but tears were pouring down the right side of his face from the pain. With a shaky hand he cut the straw short, and used some duct tape to keep the straw in place. He'd need proper treatment for his pneumothorax soon. He would really have to thank Jacob soon for all those crash courses in field medicine.

Still taking deep breaths, he put his blue shirt back on. Although still concerned, Julie approached him again "I think you forgot something." She held out his earlier confiscated blue Burner's jacket.

"Thank you, Julie." He replied sincerely.

* * *

For several minutes Julie tried to re-establish contact with the other Burners, and during that time Chuck sat and waiting, hoping that his tension pneumothorax wouldn't return. He was truthfully glad it was just a pneumothorax and not a hemopneumothorax, because a straw wouldn't cut it if his lungs were filling with blood with air.

"Dutch, Dutch!" Julie called as she finally got back in touch with the Whiptail driver. "I've got Chuck! What's your status?"

"Chuck? Thank god you're back!" Dutch repeated, sounding relieved and excited, but this died down quickly "Nol help us fix this." Pop-up screens of the Genesis Pod appeared, with that appeared to be some form of hard light circuits branching off of it. "We hit the Genesis Pod with Bessie-"

"Bessie?" Julie repeated.

"That's what we named the weapon. But the pod's defenses just heal itself." He explained in a panic.

"We're going to have to take out the control module." Julie said as she looked up to her leader.

"Where's that?" Dutch and Chuck asked in unison.

A crestfallen look crossed Julie's face. "Kane's Warpod." She told them.

"Is there any way we can get inside?" Out of habit Chuck crossed his arms momentarily - before the sharp pain of his shabby chest decompression stabbed him hard enough to make him drop his arms again with a cringe.

Julie looked around as she thought hard "I can think of a way. Chuck," she turned to the blond rebel leader "take me hostage."

* * *

Mike stood behind his leader in the warpod as said man was typing away at the progress of the Genesis Pod. His heart was sinking as the scheme of Motorcity's destruction was drawing closer and closer with each passing moment.  
"Sir…" Mike started, keeping composure "I'm… Not sure about this?"

"What's there not to be sure of, Commander Chilton?" Kane began, not bothering to turn around, and if he had he would definitely see the confliction clear in Mike's face "You'll be standing by my side as we build a better world from Motorcity's ashes. This will be our victory Chilton, /ours/."

"Ours…" Mike repeated, but much quieter. Now that he thought about it, Kane used words like us, we and ours quite a lot… Up to this point, Mike had always assumed that the nation's leader was referring to all the people of Deluxe collectively. Now… The more he thought about it, the more and more apparent it was that Kane was referring to them. Them as in, himself and Mike. Just them.

Their relationship was beyond that of simply just a soldier and his commanding officer. Kane had singled him out since even before he was a cadet, grooming him… like a father and son.

Mike was too eager to follow his orders, to be something far greater than himself. He wanted… he wanted…

He had wanted to be just like Abraham Kane.

Now that he watched the screen of the Genesis Pod's progress however, the one thing he did know was that he definitely didn't want to kill hundreds of thousands of people.

He remembered what Chuck said… everything that Chuck had said. Every time he told Mike that he was sheltered, that he was clueless, that he was a cinnamon roll whatever that was. All the time's he told him that he had no individuality and freedom.

He was the commander of Kane's Army, but in the end… He wasn't so much Michael Chilton as he was an extension of Kane.

Suddenly his bosses comm screen came to life, and Mike was shocked to see the battered and bruised face of Chuck there, standing in what seemed to be a pod.

"Hello Abraham." Chuck greeted gruffly.

"Charles Torrence." Kane growled in rage, and Mike wasn't sure if he was more surprised by the call or by the fact that Chuck actually had a full name. "Where did you- how did you-!"

"I have someone I think you might want." Chuck coldly cut him off.

"A hostage?" The red-headed ruler insinuated, then laughed "We both know you'd never hurt a civilian." That was a sentient about Chuck that Mike had to agree with, surely Chuck could never harm a soul, let alone an innocent one.

With that the Burner let out a cold, cruel laugh of his own "I'm a programmer Kane. I'm a man of logic, not a man of emotion. There's a lot of immoral things a scientist is willing to do for the greater good. /You/ taught me that, Kane."

The Kane Co commander wasn't sure what to think, with all of the one on one confrontations he had with Chuck (of war, and pleasure), he'd never seen him act so cold and detached.

"I'll give her back, when you turn off the Genesis Pod." Chuck finished. Mike's eyes widened at what his ex-lover was suggesting, a gesture that Kane did as well.

"Her…?" Kane questioned, his tone confirmed that he and his soldier were thinking of the same person.

Chuck reached over off screen and forcefully pulled Julie close to him, his face cold and devoid of all emotion.

"HELP! PLEASE!"

* * *

Something about this was wrong, very wrong. His ex-boyfriend holding his close friend and colleague hostage was wrong on it's own. But this… this wasn't logically right either.

Although Julie appeared to be a meek intern, Mike knew her better than that. She was tough, she was strong, she was stubborn she was, she was a god damn survivor, a way better one than most of Mike's personally trained soldiers. And for some reason, she was very well versed in most forms of defense combat anyways.

She was by no means a damsel in distress.

Not to mention that Chuck was no perpetrator.

For one thing, he could barely even talk to women let alone hold one hostage. And he wasn't very physically strong either, and Mike knew from the whiteness of his sclera that he wasn't on his booster at the time of the call. Even if he was stronger than Julie, she was strong enough to give him a hell of a fight. Chuck didn't have any scratches (Red dealt blunt for and electrical trauma, not scratches) to indicate a struggle, and Julie didn't have a mark on her either. And for the majority of the call, Chuck wasn't even holding her down in any way. There was no way Julie would just be a passive prisoner.

Kane was too panicked to see it the way that Mike saw it either, as he rushed his war pod to the rendezvous point. Maybe the ruler was still somewhat set in the old ways and could only see girls and women as damsels…? While it would be easy to say that Mike's lingering affection for Chuck was the reason that he doubted this whole thing, the logic just didn't fit.

Kane stopped his pod and beckoned Mike to follow him, the two of them climbed to the top of the pod and from the roof they saw Chuck holding Julie. Although, Mike immediately noticed he wasn't holding her too firmly, the blond seemed to quickly whisper something to the intern, but she said nothing in response.  
Kane looked down almost gently at Julie, which caught Mike off guard, but then his angry look reappeared as he looked back up at the rebel leader. The commander looked back to his former lover as well; Chuck side-eyed him sadly but only for a moment.

"Let's get on with it." Kane grumbled.

"It's simple," Chuck began, holding both of Julie's biceps as he held her in front of him, raising more suspicion in Mike, as it was a weak hold and Julie could easily wrench out of it "I'll send her over, she turns off the Genesis Pod, and then I'll surrender. No escapes, no protests." Chuck bargained.

"And what happens if I don't agree to your terms?" Kane challenged back, Mike looked to Julie and tried to mouth that it would be okay, but she wasn't looking at him. "Don't tell me you came all the way up here with just a bluff." He took a threatening step forward.

"One more step and I drop her!" Chuck threatened, pushing her forward just a little bit but still gripping her.

"No you won't!" The Deluxe ruler spat back at him "You don't have the stomach for this."

Mike noticed Julie's facial expression change ever so slightly, she looked down, then at her captor.

And then Chuck seemed to push her off of the edge, and then catch her before she could descend for real.

"N-No!" Kane shouted, getting into a defensive stance. Chuck was holding Julie, dangling her off the edge. He was the only thing that standing between her and a violent death.

Mike however, wasn't as blinded by fear as his boss was; he saw right through it all. Julie had pressed herself back into Chuck and flung her own self over to make it look like he was pushing her, but she was clearly moving on her own will, it was especially easy to see because Chuck had the same horrified look on her face as Kane.

This was staged.

This wasn't a hostage situation at all.

But why… how was Julie in on this?

Chuck gave Kane a threatening look "I should let her go." He challenged.

"No wait!" The ruler of Deluxe nearly stammered "I'll do it," he finally agreed, defeated, which Mike didn't see coming. He knew that Julie was treated a lot better than other interns, but he didn't realize that their boss cared about her this much, to this extreme "just, don't hurt her." He pleaded. "Please!"

With a bit of a cough and a huff, Chuck struggled to heave Julie back onto the roof "If I didn't know you better, I'd almost believe you cared."

'That make's two of us…' Mike wordlessly agreed.

Slowly, Chuck had the pod approach the war pod, until it was close enough for Julie to walk over. She said something quietly to their boss that Mike didn't catch. However, he did catch Kane's words to her "It's okay," he replied, and his eye's narrowed as he kept them fixated on his long time thorn in his side "you'll be safe soon."

Julie stopped in her tracks and she tried to whirl around but was whisked away by a forcefield. "No! No!" She shouted as she pounded against the hard light. This confirmed Mike's theory; this wasn't a hostage situation, this was a coup, somehow Chuck got her on his side. And Kane didn't notice any of this.

"No!" Chuck yelled, dejected as the red-haired girl was pulled away. His only leverage in this situation.

"Now…" Kane began, and he curled his fists "Let's finish this!" He yelled and charged at the blond. Mike followed, but he had no intention of attacking Chuck.

It wasn't much of a fight, Chuck pressed against his bionic eye which activated his booster, but that still didn't compare to someone of such greater size, strength and fight skill. Chuck didn't stand a chance. But he tried, oh did he try. He was a scrapper at heart, he was going to try to fight until the bloody end no matter how much it hurt him. In less than a minute, he was standing with blood running down his face from his forehead, even more busted up and broken than earlier.

The blonde could barely stand, he was wobbling as he tried to get into a fighting stance, and Kane wasn't having any of it "Pathetic…." He snarled and threw his fist back for a fishing blow.

"No!" Mike shouted and threw himself between Chuck and Kane.

Kane was shocked.

Chuck was shocked.

Mike was still conflicted, he wasn't thinking straight.

"Chilton what are you doing!" His boss barked, "Get out of my way!"

"I won't let you hurt him!" Mike shouted back, his words had little to no thought behind them, yet so much at the same time.

"Chilton step aside-"

"I love him!"

Silence, at first Kane was dumbstruck, and then he just became angry all over again. And even more so this time. Meanwhile, Chuck could barely register what was going on, he definitely had a concussion at this point, and his makeshift needle decompression had fallen out, so his pneumothorax was returning, and he was bleeding profusely not just from his head, but internally as well. He could taste the coppery red fluid dripping out of his mouth. He was so disoriented, so afraid… so…so…

So sure he was going to die.

He whimpered and weakly gripped the back of Mike's jacket, and before he knew it Kane was holding both of them over the edge of the building by the fronts of their shirts.

"You're choosing some sewer rat over Deluxe!" Kane roared into Mike's face "You were like a son to me! You could have had it all!"

"I'd never stand by you in a world build on the graves of thousands of innocent people! That was never going to happen!" Mike shouted back.

"…I know that now." Kane said, in the most chilling voice either of the two younger men in his grasp had ever heard.

And he dropped them.

Chuck feebly looked to the ground, it was far away now but it would be close all too soon. He was vaguely aware of Mike holding his hand, and the comforting sound of his voice. Mike was so brave… And Chuck still loved him so much… He'd just literally fought against his own tyrannical ruler, and gotten thrown off of a building, for the greater good. And he was still trying to comfort him, even as they were falling to their deaths.

Some shitbag of a leader and a lover Chuck was, he couldn't return all of the sentiments Mike was giving him, he couldn't be the strong one here, he couldn't comfort Mike back or even tell him that he still loved him.

All he could think of was death.

All he could think of was how close he was to death.

All he could think of was how scared he was.

_To be continued..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: Chuck isn't quite as accepting to his 'fate' as Mike was in the original series. And there you have it, now all that's left is the epilogue. And just to make it clear, Mike did not just betray Kane for Chuck's sake. Yeah his love for Chuck is what made him save his life, but the reason he went so far as to disobey Kane was because the whole Genesis Pod thing made him realize that Kane was a genocidal megalomaniac.


	20. Present Trauma

' _Six months already… where has time gone?_ ' Mike thought as he crossed out another day on the calendar in the bay. His black and orange jacket lay haphazardly on the hood of his car, Mutt as he's christened it six months ago, to prevent getting grease stains on it while he worked under the car for minor repairs.

It'd been six months since the incident with the Genesis Pod; after Kane had flung them off of his war pod, he and Chuck had been falling to their deaths when the Duke of Detroit saved them using Chuck's car Blonde Thunder, after ejecting the Duke Chuck had to be and backseat driver and hacker while the Pod was blasted by the last laser blast of 'Bessie', however in the chaos, Blonde Thunder was destroyed and Mike and Chuck were saved by a motorcycle fail-safe the blond had installed.

The battle was over in their favor, but the war was not.

For one thing, Chuck was horrendously injured - aside from his self-treated and rapidly returned hemopneumothorax, he also had head trauma, his synthetic left eye was busted, and his ribs were unsurprisingly broken. He had to be hospitalized.

Mike stayed by his side despite the other Burner's being wary of his presence (minus Julie), for almost two weeks; Chuck was silent and despondent the whole time, having not said a single word to anyone. On day twelve of the Burner Leaders hospital stay, Mike had left the bedside for a minute to go take a leak, and when he came back Chuck was gone. Frantically he searched around the hospital, but video evidence proved that Chuck had escaped through the fourth story window and disappeared into the darkness of the nearby alleyways.  
With their leader gone, the remaining Burner's had even more reason to not trust Mike, and they'd probably would have cast him aside like garbage if it wasn't for Julie vouching for him. So he'd been taken in as a Burner, and was made their new leader no less than two months later.

Since Chuck had handed him the keys to the green car when he was prisoner, and because Blonde Thunder was totally destroyed and had only been fully rebuilt a week ago, Mike took the green car and finally gave it a proper name.  
The Burners had looked for Chuck for three months before finally giving up their search; Chuck was smart, if he didn't want to be found there was no way they would find him. They could only hope that he was doing okay. Mike, however, hadn't quite given up the hope of finding him. He'd search during his off-hours, and had exhausted almost every lead so far, even the LARPer's hadn't seen him, although admittedly during his time of searching Mike had become good friends with the role-playing group, and occasionally played D&D with them.  
"It's been three years you know." The rusty voice of Jacob said from behind him, making the brunet turn to the older man.

"Three years?" Mike inquired as he put his jacket back on - it no longer had the bandana wrapped around the Burners symbol on his arm, but he always kept the bandana in his pocket anyways.

"Since Chuck became a Buner." Jacob told him, the older mans voice had a bittersweet tone to it.

"I see…" Mike replied, looking to the ground, slightly enough that only someone as close as Jacob could notice. In response, the Sasquatch driver put a comforting hand on the younger mans shoulder.

"You know… He really loved you." Jacob consoled.

Mike cleared his throat "Clearly not enough." Not even his support could keep Chuck with them.

"Now, now," Jacob chided as he put a plate of bright green muffins on the hood of Mutt "you need to understand, Chuck had demons."

"Demons?"

"Demon's in his head my boy," Jacob explained "Mental illness is something either tucked away or purged in Deluxe, so you tend to not hear about it much. But I believe Chuck had PTSD…" Seeing the confused look on Mike's face, Jacob continued to explain "It stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder… It's where a person is affected by a traumatic event, and effects them to the point of growing distant from loved ones, no longer enjoying previously loved activities, and having recurring stress and panic from the event, as if it's still happening. I could see it in Chuck's eye… He had what was called the 'thousand yard stare'."

Mike thought about what Jacob was saying, and applied it to Chuck; it was true, Chuck didn't talk, but his eye would stare out blankly into space, almost as if he was looking right through everything. Not to mention Chuck did go through a lot of trauma in one day; being double crossed by the Duke, being captured and beaten half to death by Red, almost executed, having his entire city almost destroyed, then flung off a building and would have been killed if not for the quick intervention of the Duke himself.  
"But… Why just him… Why not me, or Julie, or…" Mike trailed off; he and the other Burners went through similar, why was Chuck the one fated to be struck by such a condition?  
"Everyone's different, Mike." Jacob told him "It doesn't make anyone stronger or weaker. The best we can do is understand that it's not his fault, and accept that's how he is, and try to help him."

Mike sighed "I'm going for a drive…" He picked up the muffins and put them in a brown paper bag, it'd be rude to throw them away even if they did look and smell disgusting.  
"Remember to call if anything comes up…" Jacob told him.  
"Of course."

* * *

Once again a search through Motorcity yielded nothing.

By the time night came, Mike was tired and hungry, because he dare not eat the muffins given to him by Jacob, and ended up stopping at a fast food place. He didn't bother to read the name of the food place, but when he walked in he was hit with familiarity. It was the same Burger Joint that he and Chuck had met when they started their relationship, it made his heart ache for more reasons than the greasy oil smell already clogging up his arteries.

He sat down to order a burger, fries and coke, which came immediately. He stayed at the counter and mostly kept to himself while he ate, and couldn't help but overhear the conversation of some nearby patrons because they had no idea how to control the volume of their voices.

"Yeah Tory's always willing to trade," One of the patrons, a tanned girl with straight black hair said "he's got good shit. Not for free though, I'll tell ya."

"Can I get tech from 'im?" A male with curly brown hair asked.  
"Yeah. But only for whatever part he wants. He's that guy with the eyepatch who hangs out in Lower Woodward."

Mike's attention was immediately caught - eyepatch? As in, one eye? Chuck had left the hospital before Jacob had finished his replacement bionic eye… It was far fetched, because people with missing body parts aren't exactly unheard of in Motorcity, but it was the biggest clue he'd gotten so far.

Lower Woodward was, unsurprisingly, even more slummy than most parts of Motorcity. Now, income distribution wasn't exactly great considering that there was a very small wealthy class, small middle class, and majority poor, but it was clear that that particular part of the city was populated completely by the very poor. At first Mike doubted that Chuck would be in such a squalid and possibly hostile area, but realized that it made sense, as it would be unlikely anyone would hide in such an area by choice.

The former military officer parked his car and made sure his security system was up to prevent theft or looting, and began walking down the street with his head down. Months of fighting Kane and the Burners were well known, even Mike at this point, but even with his infamy he didn't doubt that there were a sizable amount of Motorcitizens who did not trust him or wouldn't mind giving him a well-deserved beating.

His suspicions were confirmed when a seedy-looking man began following him, but Mike ignored him and kept his head down as he continued to weave about the streets, but every time he got a glance behind him, there were more and more shady characters, accumulating to form a gang of sorts.

Mike stopped when he came to a wire fence that split an alley in half and made an end "What's up?" He asked calmly as he executed an about-face, not losing his military bearing to the face of the gang. If there's one thing Mike was, he was honest (at least now), he wasn't going to hide who or what he was to anybody.  
"Mike Chilton." One of the men spat.

"That's me," Mike confirmed with his iconic grin but serious eyes "and how can I help you today?"

"Everybody's been saying you've reformed," another man spoke, with a voice heavy with hatred an an obvious lifetime smoking habit "but once Kanes lapdog, always Kanes lapdog." Oh boy, this again. While he couldn't blame the Motorcitizens from their weariness of him, especially considering how he played a direct part in the war and battles between the two sides of Detroit in favor of Deluxe, he'd naively hoped six months was enough to win their trust.  
This hope just couldn't be applied to everyone.

Mike dropped his grin and lifted his hands up passively, he could definitely fight them off without Mutt, after all he had his spark staff in his jacket at easy reach; but he didn't want to create more distrust with the citizens of Motorcity if he could resolve this peacefully. "Look, I don't want any trouble."

"Then you should have just stayed in Deluxe or fucking died." The original man growled, which did cut a little deep in Mike; he knew that people had died directly and indirectly from Kane's attacks on the city, many of these attacks he'd been the directly overseer of. While he did believe he could redeem himself, there were just some things he knew were unforgivable.

The gang stepped closer "Please," Mike said "that isn't who I am now." He wasn't Kane Co's commander anymore, he was Mike Chilton, just Mike Chilton.  
"I don't care." The first man said, reaching into his jacked presumably for a gun or knife, but Mike still didn't reach for his spark staff.

"Well, I do." Mike couldn't help his grin returning at this new voice; new to the situation but not new to Mike. The fence was shoved slightly enough for a person to slip between the wire and the alley wall, and Mike couldn't help but chuckle at how even after everything they'd gone through Chuck still had a flair for the 'mysterious entrance' he'd often pulled at his LARP club, with the cape and everything, judging by how worn the cape was now however, it was definitely part of his regular attire.

"This doesn't have anything to do with you, Tory." One of the men said to Chuck as the blond man stepped between Mike and the seedy gang.

"Leave." Chuck said simply.

"Tory-"

"I said leave for fucks sake, I'll deal with this guy." Hesitantly, the group of men actually turned and left. There was a moment of silence as they waited for the group to be completely out of sight, as Chuck turned to face his old flame with his hands shoved into his cloak pockets. His hair was slightly longer, and wilder than it used to be but the bangs were still parted and for the most part out of his face. His missing eye hadn't been replaced, as indicated by an black eyepatch, and from his face to what could be seen of his body shape through his hooded cloak was very gaunt even compared his original petite self. Still handsome as ever, at least in Mike's eyes.

Silence, all Mike could hear was his heart beating all the way up to his ears.  
Chuck sighed heavily "Why are you here?" He demanded, f his hands were digging around his various pockets until he produced a cigarette and a lighter, throwing Mike off slightly.

"I-" He began, Chuck didn't let him finish, he lit the cigarette and stuck it into one corner of his mouth and used one hand to physically start dragging Mike out of the alley.

"I can't fucking believe you," Chuck reprimanded, not bothering to look back at him as he dragged him. "I can't believe you came here, don't you known this is a dangerous neighborhood?"

"I wanted to find you." Mike told him, and it seemed to make Chuck skip a step, but only slightly.

"I'm taking you to your car, where is it?" Chuck asked, and Mike stepped down and made them both stop.

"I want to talk to you." The brunet told his former lover sternly, rolling his wrist out of Chuck's grasp, now that they were in close proximity Mike could study Chuck's features more clearly; his cheeks were pale and seemingly bloodless as they no longer held a rosy tint, and his good eye was dark ringed, his neck and face had a few bruises that didn't seem to be too fresh and there were some healed scratches scattered about his jawline and forehead. Clearly he'd been in several scraps over the six months he'd been gone. "…What happened to you Chuck? Why did you leave? Why didn't you come back?"

"I don't have to tell you anything." Chuck practically growled, taking a long drag of his cigarette before looking to the side to blow the smoke out. "Look, I don't know what you were hoping to accomplish by coming here. It's been half a year Mike, if I wanted to come back I would've, if I wanted you to find me you would have a long time ago. So just do us both a favor and get lost."

"You know I can't do that Chuck." Mike told him gently, placing a hand on his arm that Chuck thankfully didn't shake off.

Chuck was quiet for a solid minute, the cigarette was in his hand but he was not longer actively smoking it, instead he was just looking down at the Burner with a sad eye. "…I know you can't, and won't." Chuck said with a sad sigh "I'm sorry Mike… I'm not going back."

"Can we please just talk…" Chuck didn't answer, he took one more drag of the cigarette before flicking it away. "I missed you…" The blond stiffened up slightly, and Mike knew it was because Chuck had a hard time dealing with emotions.  
"…We can talk. Just not here."

* * *

Chuck's place was an apartment in a small complex, it was… kind of nice, given the area they were in, it had a small kitchen, living room, one bathroom and two bedrooms, although by the looks of it only one bedroom was being used as a bedroom while the other one seemed to be a room dedicated to Chuck's technological side.

"How'd you afford this place?" Mike asked Chuck as the blond draped his cloak over the back of a chair - he wore an elbow-sleeved shirt very similar to the one he used to wear, except this was mainly dark blue with black sleeves and lacked the Burners insignia.

"I work human resources at a nearby tech firm." Chuck answered, plopping down at his couch.

"Shouldn't you be a programmer?" Mike asked, trying to lighten the mood as he sat at the other side of the couch.

"Credentials don't transfer very well from Deluxe." Chuck answered dry and matter-of-fact.

Silence. They just sat there awkwardly as Chuck grabbed a remote and turned the TV on, Mike knew Chuck didn't watch TV very much, background noise just made the blond feel less anxious.

"So…" Chuck trailed off awkwardly, looking to the floor instead of Mike "what do you want to talk about?"

"First off, why did you leave?" It was a touchy subject, Mike could tell from the apprehensive expression that immediately appeared on Chuck's face, but it was first thing he needed to know, it was where this all began.

"B-because," Chuck began defensively, taking in a deep breath to collect himself and his emotions but this only sent him into a coughing fit. Concerned and overwhelmed with protectiveness over the man he -still- loved, Mike scooted over next to him and put his arms around him, patting his back to attempt to alleviate his coughing "L-look it's hard to explain, I was a shit leader okay."

"You weren't a bad leader Chuck." Mike consoled.

"Don't bullshit me!" Chuck snarled and nearly shoved him off "I got tricked by Duke! I'm a genius and I got outsmarted by a man that wears curlers to bed!"

"…" Okay, Mike wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that.

"I knew he was up to something… maybe not what he was up to, but I knew it wasn't good. All I had to do was agree to not help him, even if he left me in the depths all I had to do was follow him out. Hell, I could've agreed to help him, and then ditched. But I didn't, Mike. I got captured by Kane, Motorcity was almost destroyed, my car was destroyed, me and you… We almost… Almost…" He started to choke up and a a distant, but distressed look appeared in his single blue eye.

The thousand-yard stare that Jacob had explained, that Chuck had the entirety of his visit at the hospital.

"I know, I know we almost died." Mike drew his arms around Chuck again, pulling him in close, into a familiar embrace that they'd shared many times when they were together. "I know you're hurt, I know you've gone through a lot, and I know you're having a hard time with how you're feeling."

"Oh how would you know how I feel." Chuck scoffed, but he didn't pull away or push Mike off of him "You handled that situation a million times better than I did. You accepted the possibility of death so calmly, you took charge without skipping a beat, and here I am, a mess. You don't understand Mike… You really don't."

Mike placed his cheek on top of Chuck's head, normally awkward given their height difference but Chuck was practically laying on him in this position "You're right Chuck… I don't understand." He murmured gently "I don't know what it's like to lose an eye, I don't know what a tension pneumothorax feels like, I don't know what it's like to almost lose my city, until recently I didn't know what it felt like to constantly be attacked by another government and neither did I understand what it really meant to be a leader. Those men earlier were right you know, I was Kane's lapdog… I was the commander, but I was never truly a leader, everything I did, I did because Kane told me to, and I was too stubborn to believe it. So no Chuck, I don't truly understand how you feel… But what I do know is that you're still hurt, and I will always love you."

Chuck started to sniffle, as his barriers finally started to come down, and his sniffling increased into he was full-blown sobbing into Mike's chest, and gripping the edges of the others jacket either in a vain attempt to feel grounded or for the sake of comfort. "What I do know," Mike continued, holding him in even closer, close enough he could feel the sobs racking the others body, close enough he could feel his heartbeat "is that I want to help you. I know that you have a lot of friends, who also want to help you, because they care about you a lot, and every single one of us just wants you back." And for what must have been the good part of an hour, they just sat there with Chuck crying against him, and Mike holding him and occasionally rubbing his back or stroking his hair, no words spoken between them but there weren't any words needed, Chuck needed to finally express his emotions and Mike just needed to know he was safe.

When his leg started to fall asleep Mike attempted to shift their position by sitting up straight, but this put them at an awkward angle and it put the weight distribution in Chuck's favor, with Chuck not attempting to correct it and his death grip on Mike's jacket made them fall on Chuck's side of the couch with Chuck accidentally pulling Mike on top of him. Mike had to remove his arms from around Chuck and to avoid tumbling on him he planted them onto the couch on either side of Chuck but this just inadvertently put him in the straddling position.  
Awkwardly, and slightly blushing, Mike looked down at Chuck, who was still sniffling and the left side of his face was wet and sticky with tears. "Please…"

Mike started to pull away, but his interpretation of Chuck's plea being to get off of him wasn't what Chuck as intended, because the blond immediately wrapped his arms around his neck and pulled him in against him with enough force to tell Mike that despite his gaunt appearance Chuck was definitely a lot physically stronger than he used to be.

"Please don't go." Chuck whispered to him - lying chest-to-chest Mike wasn't sure if the strong beating was his own or Chucks, but in hindsight it was probably both. Their faces were practically touching and Mike could see that even with the sclera being bloodshot, Chuck's good eye wasn't as hazy as it seemed earlier, it was the pretty maya-blue color that Mike had in the past gotten lost and almost drowned it. One of them initiated a kiss, neither was sure who.

And history repeated itself as the two men so completely lost in each other and passion that the rest of the world seemed to melt away.

* * *

A beeping in the distance cause Mike to open his eyes with a struggle, when he finally did get them open the room was too dark for him to make anything else except for the soft glow of the TV from the living room leaking through the slightly open door of Chuck's bedroom. Chuck was still asleep next to him and had his head resting on Mike's arm, which explained why his arm was asleep.  
Muttering to himself and shifting gently as not to wake Chuck, the Burner rolled out of the bed and wrapped a towel around his waist for the sake of modesty and gently tiptoed to the living room where his jacket was strewn on the floor, he picket the garment on, but zipped it to create the illusion he wasn't buck naked, and turned his communicator on. The head icon of Dutch appeared and the sudden appearance of bright light in the dimly lit room made Mike have to blink repeatedly.

"Mike! Where the heck are you man? You've been gone all day! Don't tell me you got yourself lost in the depths again." Mike just tiredly nodded as he seated himself onto the couch.

"Look I'm fine and I'm not lost I just uh… I just ended up further away than I intended and it got too late to turn back, I'm in a motel." Mike explained, of course it was a lie but he wasn't going to betray Chuck's trust so soon "I'll be back tomorrow, okay?"

"Are you sure you don't want us to get you? Our tracking device is saying you're in Woodworth, and that place is shady even for Motorcity."

"I'm okay, I promise." Mike waved off the Whiptail drivers concern "I'm going back to sleep, see you tomorrow Dutch." And before the other Burner could protest or put another word in, Mike shut off his communicator. Yawning, he gathered up the clothes strewn about and returned to Chuck's bedroom where the hacktivist was thankfully still out like a brick.

Placing the clothes on a dresser, Mike carefully climbed back onto the bed where his partner automatically rolled back onto lying on his arm, which was pretty cute even though Mike would definitely wake up with his arm asleep again, but he didn't mind too much.

With his free arm he rested his hand on Chuck's cheek, gently pushing his wild bangs out of his face "I'll always be here for you, no matter what you're going through." He promised, even though Chuck was asleep. As if in response the former Burner snuggled closer to him, and Mike joined him in slumber.

* * *

"I don't know, Mike…" Chuck trailed off as they walked down the street. "Aren't they going to… I don't know, freak out if they see me again."

"Maybe a little bit, but in a good way." Mike told him with a grin "The Burners missed you a lot, especially Texas."

"I'm not surprised, he just isn't the same guy if he isn't taunting me to my face." Chuck joked a little, although his tone was mostly flat. It was a start though, a definite sign that he was starting to warm up.

They stopped in front of Mutt, which was untouched, the car had a top notch defense system even when idle, which was how it survived the whole night without having it's tires or undercarriage parts stolen.

"So you use the green car now huh."

"Mutt."

"Excuse me?"

"I named it Mutt."

"Oh."

They stood awkwardly by the car, and Mike started to notice the beginnings of a thousand-yard stare returning to Chuck's eye. "Hey, what's wrong."

"I-I," Chuck took in a deep breath "I-I'm scared of driving." That was a shock to Mike, as Chuck loved driving, and he'd loved his car, and he was the one to introduce Mike to cars in the first place. However… it sadly did make a lot of sense, as Blonde Thunders destruction had saved Motorcity but would have killed them if not for the motorcycle fail-safe. The whole even had been so traumatic of course he could barely even be near a car.

"Hey, that's okay," Mike assured him, grabbing his hand and giving it a gentle squeeze "you take the figurative back seat on this, and literal passenger seat. I'll drive us back - and very carefully." Normally Mike was a speed demon when it came to driving, but seeing just how jittery Chuck was he was definitely following the posted speed limit this time.

"I-I still don't know… I… I tried once but…" Chuck explained, having a hard time putting into words why exactly he was having such a hard time around something he used to enjoy.

"But you went through something traumatic and now you don't enjoy this anymore, Chuck it's fine if driving scares you, it's okay. I'm asking if you can trust me." Mike told him gently, but Chuck was definitely still jittery. An idea came to him and Mike opened the passenger door and reached inside, grabbing a paper bag "You really liked these didn't you?" He handed Chuck the bag, and although initially confused Chuck practically lit up seeing familiar bright green muffins inside the bag.

"Are these-"

"Yup, okra and mayonnaise."

Chuck straight up ate a whole muffin in what must have been one swallow and no chewing, Mike would have been impressed if he wasn't already so familiar with the capabilities of others throat. It took a little bit more coaxing, but eventually Mike got Chuck into the passenger seat.

He took the drivers seat and buckled in, but instead of starting Mutt up right away, Mike looked over to the hacker, who was breathing heavily with anxiety. "Just tell me when you're ready," Mike consoled, reaching over to grab his hand again.

"Do y-you care if I can never drive again?" Chuck asked between quick, anxious breaths. The brunet used his thumb to soothingly rub the back of his shaking hand. And he waited until Chuck had calmed down a little before he answered.  
"I'd love it if you could drive again, but only if you're comfortable doing it. If you never drive again, I don't mind as long as you're by my side; whether it be in my passenger seat, or in a comm screen."

"Thank you Mike…" Chuck took in one last deep breath "I think I'm ready."

"Thank you for joining me today." Mike replied in an impression of a flight attendant with a grin, and put the skull of his spark staff on the stick shift, bringing to Mutt to life.

**The End... Go Home.**


End file.
